Emergence: Asides
by Chris7221
Summary: Alternate perspectives, humour tangents, and side stories that don't really fit into the flow of Emergence, but are related to the story. May be sillier and not very well written; some are canon and some are not. Open to contributions. NEW: Mistletoe (Escudo)
1. A List of People

There's a lot that I want to put in Emergence that just doesn't fit within the flow of the story. Alternate perspectives, humour tangents, meanwhiles, et cetera. I'm calling these Asides because I'm not sure if they are true omake. They may be sillier and lower quality than the rest of the story, but unless otherwise noted, all are canon and many are significant to the story.

Context: Any time after Chapter 13, the consulate receptionist.

* * *

><p><span><strong>E<strong>**mergence: Aside 1  
>The List Of People Olga Shevchenko Has Been Asked To Find, Assist, or Otherwise Track Down<strong>

Ivan the Great: Nationality - Russian; Historical Leader

Ivan the Terrible: Nationality - Russian; Historical Leader

Ivan the Flatulent: Nationality - Unknown; Joke Character

_Is not funny._

Lech Wałęsa: Nationality - Polish; Former President of Poland

_He is Polish, how you not tell?_

Pavel Chekov: Nationality - Russian; Fictional - Star Trek

Marko Ramius: Nationality - Lithuanian/Russian; Fictional - The Hunt For Red October

_I like movie, but I don't understand how anyone can think Scotsman he is Russian or Lithuanian._

Lyudmila Pavlichenko: Nationality - Ukrainian; War Hero

_Is great hero, but unfortunately, is also long dead._

Paulina Porizkova - Nationality: Czech/Swedish/American; Model and Actress

_I don't understand how anyone thinks this one. __Polish, maybe, but Ukrainian?_

Milla Jovovich - Nationality: Ukrainian; Actress

_I never realized she was born in Kyiv! Exciting, but cannot help you._

Osama bin Laden - Nationality: Saudi Arabia; Terrorist

_Everyone want him found, but why you come here?_

Imran Zakhaev: Nationality - Russian; Fictional - Call of Duty

_Name sounds like a Caucasian or a Steppes Person._

Vladimir Makarov: Nationality - Russian; Fictional - Call of Duty

_He just kept repeating the words, "Find Makarov"._

Vitali Klitschko: Nationality - Ukrainian; Boxer and Politician

Viktor Yanukovich: Nationality - Ukrainian; Former President of Ukraine

_I think the less I say about him the better._

Petro Poroshenko: Nationality - Ukrainian; President of Ukraine

Vladimir Putin: Nationality - Russian; President of Russia

_I would like to hand you his head on a silver platter but unfortunately I cannot._

Weiss Schnee: Nationality - German; Fictional - RWBY

_The German part is just a guess, I will not watch Japanese cartoon to find out._


	2. Happier Times

Context: A little bit of background about Katya. It is implied that everyone is speaking Russian.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Emergence: Aside <strong>**2**  
><strong>Happier Times<strong>

_Ruby bolted upright, flailing around in surprise. "Weiss! I-I was studying, and then I fell asleep! I'm sorry..."_

_Weiss shushed her, putting a finger over her own mouth. Quietly, she asked, "How do you take your coffee?"_

"_I... I don't..."_

"_Answer the question!" Weiss snapped._

"_Uhh, cream and five sugars!" Ruby stammered._

"_Don't move," Weiss sighed, disappearing to her own bed. A moment later, she came back with a fresh cup. "Here."_

"_Um... Thanks, Weiss," Ruby replied, trying to hide her surprise._

_Weiss smiled apologetically. "Ruby, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader. Just know that I am going to be the best teammate you'll ever have! Good luck studying!"_

_She briefly reappeared and pointed to one of Ruby's papers. "That's wrong, by the way."_

_From the doorway, Weiss added, "Hey, Ruby?"_

"_Uh-huh?" Ruby asked, looking up._

"_I always wanted bunk beds as a kid," Weiss said quietly before closing the door._

Four girls and one boy crowded around a laptop. On the screen, the credits of RWBY Episode 10 rolled.

"So, do you like it yet?" Katya asked hopefully.

"No, I still hate it," Polina grumbled, leaning back. "All of Team RWBY are ridiculous idiots and the plot is terrible."

"You know, you're more like Weiss than your realize," Katya said to her friend.

"But I'm a normal student. I don't have to fight monsters, just graduate. And I am not a rich bitch."

"I don't understand," Viktor protested. "Why don't they just send in the army and kill all the Grimm?"

"It's not that easy," Katya tried to explain. "The armies aren't the powerful, and the Grimm are really tough and there's a lot of them."

"Bah! The Ukranian Army could probably destroy the Grimm. The Russians, easy."

Yulia added, "Why don't you watch real anime? It's much better than this."

"You don't like RWBY either?"

"It's been ten episodes, which are very short, by the way, and the animation is bad, the texturing is bad, it just looks bad!"

"Fine, you don't like it. What about you, Nika?" Katya asked.

The quiet girl just shrugged.

"Hey, did you hear the news from Kiev?" Alena asked, sitting down beside the group.

"What news?"

She nudged aside Katya and brought up a different video on her laptop. "There's a huge protest! Kiev is on fire!"

"What are you watching?" a concerned adult voice asked, surprising them. "Is that a violent Western movie?"

"No, this is the news," Alena said.

"There is a big violent protest in Kiev!" Viktor added. "Does that mean that the country is going to fall apart?"

"Calm down, Viktor," the teacher reassured him. "The chaos in Kiev is far away. It will not reach here."


	3. After the Fight

Context: The end of Chapter 14, from Katya's perspective.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Emergence: Aside <strong>**3**  
><strong>The Aftermath<strong>

The first thing she saw was the blood.

The second thing she saw was the dead soldiers.

The third thing she saw was the Weiss standing stoically among the bodies.

Her reaction was crude, but natural. "Yob tvoyu maht!"

"Uh... how do I put this... they tried to kill me," the girl in white said, less stoically. "I didn't expect this to happen, honestly."

"You kill these men!" she shouted. Did they really, or was this girl really a cold-blooded killer? How did she kill five armed fighters, anyway? With that sword?

Something about one of the bodies caught her eye. Cautiously, she turned the body and took the man's wallet from his half open pocket. Her eyes widened. "This is Russian soldier!"

The Weiss blinked, struggling to regain her composure. "He said they were, what did he say, spetsialny regiment."

She dropped the wallet and wiped her hands on her pants. "Yes, Russian soldier! They look for you?"

"Yes, I think so."

"They look for you!" That meant that this person was of special interest to the Russians. Who was she? An American agent? No, life wasn't a bad spy novel. Her voice grew more panicked. "You have to disguise. We have to leave, now!"

She rummaged through her small supply of extra clothes, pulling out a nondescript blue hoodie, jeans, and old sneakers that looked about the size of the other girl, handing her the collection.

"These?" the Weiss objected, holding up the clothes as if they were beneath her.

"I am sorry, princess, but this is warzone!"

"Sorry." She... apologized?

"Change."

"Here?" the Weiss said, offended again.

"Yes!" she hissed, irritated. Stupid American girl didn't know what was at stake.

"Fine!" the Weiss huffed, beginning to take off her white jacket.

"I still have question," she said as the other girl changed. "How you kill soldiers?"

"The same way as anything else. With Myrtenaster and my glyphs."

"You still must be character?"

"I told you, I'm Weiss Schnee," she replied, annoyed. "I'm done changing. Let's go."


	4. Too Much War

Very short, but potentially very bittersweet. Or potentially very crap.

**Emergence: Aside ****4**  
><strong>Too Much War<strong>

He had outlived them all.

He barely remembered Alexey, his older brother. He had been too young to understand why they had to leave home and run. He had been too young to understand why his brother was leaving to fight. He had been too young to understand what the Order of the Patriotic War meant. But he had not been too young to feel the pain of his strong, brave, loving brother's passing.

Ruslan had been their pride and joy. Their only son, he was smart, handsome, and courageous. That was why he had joined the Red Army, that was why he had been sent to Afghanistan, and that was why he had been awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. They knew right away why they were being given the medal, and not Ruslan himself.

They were too late for Irina. The daughter of Ruslan and his deceased wife, she was the last of the line and their ray of sunshine in the darkness. Like her father, she was headstrong and once she was committed to something, she would see it through. That was why she had followed his footsteps into the newly independent Ukrainian military, and that was why she had volunteered to fight the separatists five years after her service was up. And that was why she had been blown to pieces by a BM-21.

Why did they fight? He knew why, of course, but he was sick and tired of it. Tired of watching young men and women, with families, friends, and so much to live for, die brutally and horribly. Tired of watching innocent people suffer from fear, devastation, and loss.

He knew he did not have many years left. The only thing that kept him going was his wife of over half a century. Neither of them wanted to experience the loss and pain again. They would go together.


	5. Do svidaniya, Weiss Schnee

A scene that was missing from Ice Princess.

**Emergence: Aside 5  
>Do svidaniya, Weiss Schnee<strong>

It was hard to watch her leave. I stood on the platform with my aunt and uncle, and Weiss and her new companions.

"Have everything?" my aunt asked for what was probably the fifth time.

"Yes," Weiss replied.

"Good luck," my uncle wished, firmly grasping Weiss' hand.

"Thank you," she replied.

"Will miss you, free to visit any time," he added. We all knew that Weiss would probably never come back here. Nobody told my uncle that she would be travelling on a false passport, but I'm sure he already knew or at least suspected.

"Thank you," Weiss repeated, before my aunt embraced her with her short arms.

Beside them, Sam extended his hand to my uncle. "Thank you, Vladimir."

"Is pleasure," he replied, grasping the young man's hand.

"Katya, I'd like to thank you. For everything," Weiss said to me. "I know this is hard for you. I'm sorry for what happened. But... thank you."

"Bye, Weiss," I said quietly, drawing her into a quick hug.

"Bye, Katya," she replied, then pulled away, hefting her bag and climbing aboard the train with her new companions.

In a way, we were alike. Neither of us had a life left. Both of us would start again.


	6. Earth 101

What were Cliff, Ben, and Ruby doing while everyone else was in Ukraine? Lots of stuff, actually. This is from the perspective of Cliff.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Emergence: Aside <strong>**6**  
><span><strong>Earth 101<strong>

"You're putting together, like courses and stuff?" Ruby asked incredulously, eyeing the document on my laptop.

"Curriculum," I termed, sighing. "And yes. History, technology, culture, even some biology and linguistics."

The energetic girl waved her hands in the air. "But it's so boooring!"

"But this is important stuff to know!" I protested. I mean, this was how to live, adapt to, and blend in to life on Earth. It's basic knowledge you need to pass as Earthican!

"Booooooring," she repeated.

"If I put it together now, that'll make it easier and more elegant to deliver late," I pointed out. Then I added, "And potentially less boring."

She shook her head. "Still booooring."

"Oh come on, you enjoyed it!" I said. At least, she seemed to. I'm a terrible judge of that.

"Yeah, but this is like classes and stuff and that's boring."

I tried one last time. "I thought Weiss liked classes?"

"Well, yeah, you're right, and so does Blake, but I don't think my sister will appreciate it as much."

"It's not really formal classes," I clarified. "It's just, more like, informal lessons, just a little more organized and better done."

Before she could say anything else, I quickly added, "Besides, if more people I'll show up, or if there's like, official first contact, I can give this to them as a welcome present from Earth."

"Still boring!"

"Ugh!" I threw my arms up into the air. "Then help me make it _less_ boring!"


	7. Token of Appreciation

Some people were asking if they informed their benefactors, and what the response was. This is the answer.

Ben's perspective.

* * *

><p><strong>Token of Appreciation<strong>

I had nearly tripped over the box on my way to work. I was kind of late and I didn't think much of it at the time, so I just kicked it inside and continued.

When I got home, Ruby was on the floor shaking the box, with Weiss standing beside her, glaring at her.

"Look, Ruby, if you really want to open the box, just open it!"

"What is it?" I asked. Reluctantly, Ruby handed over the box. I examined the label before tossing the box back. "Huh, it's from Texas. Maybe it's a gun or something."

Ruby's eyes lit up. "Ooh, there's a weapon in here?"

"It's obviously not a weapon, you dolt," Weiss snapped at her.

"Aww..." The girl actually looked sad at that before she exclaimed, "Can we open it? Can we? Can we?"

"Sure, whatever," I said dismissively, grabbing a Coke out of the fridge and sitting down at the kitchen table, since the couch was now Ruby's bed and I didn't feel like going into the server room and doing servery stuff today.

"Yay!" I watched as Ruby tore open the box, absolutely shredding the cardboard container.

"Ruby, be careful with that!" Weiss shrieked as the smaller girl turned what was left of the box upside down and dumping the contents on the floor.

"Look Weiss, people like grapes!" Ruby held up a bright purple T-shirt.

"Isn't that a soda?"

"It's also something someone said, it's funny, anyway!" She tossed the shirt aside and held up another two. "Red team? Blue team?"

"Ugh."

"Come on, Weiss, you could at least be appreciative even if you're not excited."

"Fine," the ice queen admitted reluctantly. "I appreciate the _effort_ that these people have put into sending us this merchandise."

Ruby tossed a poster at her. "Are those the Achieve Men? Those look like the Achieve Men."

"Those are not the Achieve Men," Weiss insisted. "Although I will admit they do look a bit like them."

The smaller girl dug through the shrinking pile of packing material and produced a box with colourful graphics on it. "Hey, look! Red versus Blue! Isaac like this show!"

"What is that?"

"They're blu-rays," Ruby explained. I guess nobody had explained them to Weiss yet. "It's like a video on a disc."

"A disc? An actual round-"

"Yeah, it's optical media, it's outdated and nobody uses it anymore," I told them.

"Oh," Ruby said, a bit disappointed. She quickly recovered, diving into the pile and pulling out a pair of... RWBY plushies. She squeed in excitement. "Ohmygoshwehaveourownplushies!"

Weiss actually backed away when Ruby thrust her plushie at her. "Get that... thing away from me!"

"But it's like a mini-you! It's soooo cute!" she said back, waving the plushie in her face.

The white-haired girl (whitehead?) reluctantly took her plushie. "Are you hitting on me?"

"No, you're not cute, just the plushie!" Ruby countered before her cheeks flushed red and she corrected herself. "I mean it's not like you're not cute or anything bad like that but I don't think you're cute in some weird creepy gushy love way or anything like that but-"

"I get it, I get it," Weiss snapped. She pointed at a corner of white sticking out of the pile. "What's that?"

"Oh, it looks like a letter!" Ruby shouted before starting to read in a dramatic tone:

"Good job getting Weiss out of Ukraine. I have to admit, I didn't think you could pull it off. I mean, Donetsk. _Damn_. As a token of our appreciating, have some free swag. The plushies are for the girls, obviously. Good luck on finding the rest of the team, we're on the lookout here."

She added, "There's also a smiley face and some illegible scrawls."

"I don't think this was for us, Ruby" Weiss pointed out.

Ruby shrugged. "Oh well."

I tossed my now-empty can in the trash, and retreated to the server room.


	8. Weiss Really Reacts

Weiss Reacts belongs to ElfCollaborator. Read that, by the way, instead of this crappy fic. Seriously, it's way better, go read it right now.

...

Finally. And with the blessing of ElfCollaborator. He has informed me that there may be reciprocity in the future.

You may also notice some changes to the formatting, such as the lack of numbering. I'm still experimenting with the asides. This is also the longest Aside so far, by far.

Canon: Partial. Characterization may be off, but events are canon.  
>Perspective: Third-person.<p>

* * *

><p><strong><span>Emergence: Aside<span>  
>Weiss Really Reacts<strong>

"So, there are people who write stories based on our lives?" Weiss asked, sitting beside Ruby in front of the computer. "That's pretty sad."

"Well, it's not really based on us," Ruby explained, clicking through the archives. "It's based on the show that's about our lives."

"How did that happen, anyway?" the heiress asked.

The other girl shrugged. "Dunno."

"Doesn't it bother you that there's a fictionalized version of our world and our lives that just happens to exist here?"

She shrugged again. "Not really. I thought it was kind of cool, actually."

Weiss was silent for a moment before she grumbled, "It's still based on our lives, even if it's indirect."

"I guess."

"So we're actually going to read this garbage?"

"It's not all garbage! Some of it is really interesting!" Ruby protested.

"Fine. Give me that," Weiss snapped, pushing Ruby and her swivel chair out of the way. She perused the list. "Hmm... Weiss Reacts. Well, that can't be that bad."

"Uh, Weiss, I wouldn't read that if I were you."

"And why not?" Weiss asked crossly. "I'm curious, and this one is about a fictional version of myself reacting to other fanfiction. That's about as benign as you can get."

"Uh..."

"It's probably just a thinly disguised series of rants from the author," Weiss said, clicking the link. "Huh. What kind of lemon is White Rose?"

"It's, uh, it means a story that has us together, like, uh, and, um, booping," Ruby explained, nervously tapping her fingers together.

Weiss was shocked. "Booping? As in..."

"Yes."

"Well, I definitely sympathize with my story-self, then. I would be extremely distraught if I had inadvertently read something like that on the internet."

The other girl didn't understand her elevated diction. "Uh, what?"

"It means I wouldn't like it," she oversimplified.

"Oh, yeah, I mean, it was pretty shocking the first time."

"What do you mean _the first time_?"

Ruby's cheeks flushed the colour of her name. "I didn't know what a lemon was, so I kept clicking on interesting sounding fics and seeing really gross stuff before someone explained it to me."

"Dolt," Weiss muttered in response, going to the next chapter.

She quickly skimmed it. "So there's a really badly written story that we laugh at, you're being creepy in this fic, and Velvet- who's Velvet?"

"Velvet is the faunus girl with the cute rabbit ears!" Ruby recalled.

"Ugh." Weiss clicked forward again.

"Hey, that's kind of like what happened here?" Ruby exclaimed. "When I first started looking at YouTube I was like what's that and then I was like wow and then I was what's this for and now I just spend a lot of time watching dumb videos."

"What's so important about Ren sneezing? Some foreshadowing?" Weiss asked.

"Dunno. Wait, is he trying to imply Ren is Monty? That's crazy!"

"Well, if I remember correctly, Monty Oum does the voice of Ren for the show here," Weiss explained. "Maybe that's the joke."

"Hey!" Weiss suddenly shouted at the screen. "Never a good singer? I'm a _great_ singer!"

"I've never heard you sing, Weiss."

"Just because I can doesn't mean I want to," she replied sadly. "Whatever, just go to the next chapter."

Ruby reached over and clicked the mouse button. "Huh. Jaune and-"

"No," Weiss snapped. "No way."

"Why do people keep sneezing?"

"Would Yang really write something like that?" Weiss asked, glaring at Ruby.

"Maybe," Ruby said sadly.

"Hey, don't worry, we'll find her," Weiss reassured her, skipping to the next chapter.

"Trailers again!" Ruby exclaimed, excited.

"Is there really any point to us reading about us reacting to trailers for a show about us?" Weiss contemplated.

"Probably not," Ruby admitted. "But come on, Weiss, it might be fun!"

"No, it doesn't feel right to read this with them gone," Weiss countered. "We can come back to this one when Blake and Yang are here."

"Fine." Ruby pouted as she skipped the chapter.

"Dustnet, fanstories, we didn't have those," Weiss muttered, starting to read.

"This doesn't make any sense!" she exclaimed after reading part of the chapter. "Random sneezing, something about nonsensical original characters... what? And this author clearly does not know what he's writing. The background information and characterization are totally off."

"It's just a silly story," Ruby said.

"It's just a _stupid_ story," Weiss muttered back.

"Did you even get what the chapter was about?"

"No, it didn't make any sense!"

"Well, it's about ridiculous original characters that-"

"I didn't want to know," Weiss snapped, going to the next chapter.

She began to read, but only made it a few paragraphs in before protesting loudly, "I have written! I have written fiction far better than this piece of trash! I have emulated the finest literary traditions of Remnant."

Ruby disagreed. "It was boooring!"

Weiss glared at her. "You read one of my stories?"

"You left it laying around! I was curious, okay?" Ruby protested. "I was surprised you wrote..."

"Of course I do! My family wanted me to be well-versed in various forms of writing for, well, my future."

"That makes sense," Ruby said before cringing. "Oh my gosh. What's up with Velvet in this fic?"

"She's obsessed!" Weiss screeched. "This is insane! I can't believe-"

"Weiss!" Ruby interrupted, grabbing and shaking the older girl by her shoulders. "It's just a story, okay? I'm sure Velvet isn't anything like that."

She quickly changed the chapter. "Look, Weiss! This chapter is about you reacting to bad fanfiction!"

"Finally, the title isn't a lie," Weiss muttered, starting to read the new, much more palatable but equally nonsensical chapter. Idly, she scrolled down the page. Reading fanfic, reading fanfic, something Ren-

"Weiss," the crimsonette whined. "You're not really reading it!"

"I am reading it!"

"You're skimming it!"

"I'm reading strategically."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm going through quickly and picking out the important bits," Weiss explained, sighing.

"It's a story, not a textbook!" Ruby protested, but she had already gone on to the next chapter.

"Cosplay is where people dress up like fictional characters," Weiss announced unnecessarily. "I was mistaken for a cosplayer at first."

"Yeah, me too," she agreed. "This is kind of weird. Sharks?"

"No, I don't really like sharks," the heiress snapped. "But they are right about me not liking anime."

Ruby whined, "You've watched like one show!"

"It was awful! It made no sense! Why was there a penguin at the end?" Weiss waved her arm for emphasis, nearly hitting Ruby in the face. She continued to read the fic, shouting out, "And I am not flattered! I am slightly disturbed! I have seen those Weiss cosplays and they don't look anything like me."

"You can't expect them to be perfect, Weiss," Ruby said quietly.

Weiss was silent, turning her attention back to the story.

Ruby interrupted her thoughts once again. "Nora as Thor? That funny, they just recently made Thor a girl."

"What?"

"There's a superhero called Thor," Ruby explained excitedly. "She's an ancient god of thunder who wields a giant hammer with a name I can't pronounce. But until just recently, the character was a guy."

"That's... strange," Weiss allowed, suppressing the urge to use some much stronger wording. The urge took over after she continued reading, "What do you mean Ruby a head or two taller! You are not that much taller than me! And what is wrong with this author? Why is there this random hugging? You don't do that, do you? No, you don't! And those costumes are not incredible!"

"Okay, okay- Jaune dressing as a girl?" Ruby burst out into laughter.

"Ew..." Weiss shuddered and scrolled to the end.

"Come on, it's funny!"

Weiss rolled her eyes, which bulged when she read the author's notes. "Lovable Tsundere Weiss-Chan? Wait, what's a tsundere?"

"It's like a person who's all mean and cold except they sometimes just become all nice and soft sometimes," Ruby explained. "Usually they're like that toward someone they have a crush on."

"I do not act like that! And I certainly don't have a crush on anyone!"

"You kind of do act like that, Weiss!" Ruby countered, but quickly added, "I don't know about the crush thing, though."

"No!" the heiress shouted. "I resent and reject this fic!"

"Come on, Weiss, one more chapter."

"Fine," Weiss pouted, clicking on the next link.

"Yang doesn't have a car," Ruby told her.

"Two years later, remember?" Weiss reminded.

The younger girl shook her head. "Yang loves bikes. The only thing she's more obsessed with than Bumblebee is Ember Celica."

She paused. "But I guess the author had to do this for the sake of plot."

"Ew, why is Ren groping Jaune?" Ruby recoiled, disgusted. "They don't really do that, do they?"

"I don't think so, at least, I really hope not," Weiss replied, slightly sickened.

Ruby read a bit, struggling to keep up with Weiss' quick scrolling. "What's Pink Argus? I've never heard of her before- I wouldn't be that excited."

"See? This story has some serious problems!"

She shook her head. "Nah, it's just supposed to be funny, not realistic."

"Jaune and Blake and... what is this I don't even..." Weiss sputtered after reading the next section. "I mean, okay, I get it, Jaune is dressed like a girl, but even he really wouldn't make a good one!"

"Yeah, I guess," Ruby half-agreed.

"A RWBY stall," Weiss deadpanned. "Okay, so this story is about us, but the show about us is in it."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I. That's what I'm saying." She kept scrolling.

"Roman and Cinder..." Ruby blinked. "Wait, is Cinder supposed to be the mysterious lady on the tiltjet?"

"I... think so."

"Why would they be there? Why are they acting so silly? If they're there, wouldn't they be planning something bad?"

"Probably, yeah," Ruby agreed reluctantly. "I mean, they're evil. But it's supposed to be a funny story, and on Earth they make funny stories where evil people aren't evil all the time, like the-"

Weiss scrolled quickly through the chapter. "Penny, the weird girl, more obsessed Velvet and attractive-as-a-girl Jaune, neither of which makes any sense, and I like... yaoi? What's that?"

"It's, uh, it's sex comics where guys, and, uh, guys..." Ruby trailed off, flushing a deep red.

Weiss slammed her hands down on the edge of the desk. "Fuck this, I'm done!"

"Weiss!" Ruby admonished.

"What? This story is horrible and I can't stand it anymore. It's badly written and it makes a complete farce out of our lives!"

"I thought it was funny," Ruby muttered.

Weiss glared at her. "Of course you did! You have an incredibly juvenile sense of humour."

"And you have no sense of humour," Ruby snapped back, instantly regretting it.

"I have a sense of humour. I have a refined, elegant sense of humour!"

"Weiss, it's okay," Ruby reassured her, hugging her gently. "It's not for everyone. If you don't like it, though, maybe you should leave a review."

"Fine. I think I will." Weiss smashed the review button and hammered out an angry rant of a review.

_This story makes a complete fucking farce of our lives. It's is dispicable, disgusting, and unbearable to rea.d It is completely inaccurate, managing to distort heavily characterization, facts, relationsships, and everything about our lives. I realize thati is based on the whos about our lives and notour lives dirextly, but it's really bad and even the show RWBY is much more accurate than this train wrick of a fiction. The concept isn't bad but you barely deliver on it, choosing to do insane nonsense plots instead of actually writing about med reviewing fanafffitcction, and doning a terrible job at it too. If it was my chocie I owuld have this fiction removed from the site by force._

_PS: dont lisetn to weiss i liked it and thougt it was funny and good- RUby_

_-TheRealWeissSchnee_


	9. Cat Girls of Akihabara

Starting the runup to Urban Panther. Probably not worth posting, but I decide to anyway.

Canon: Full.  
>Perspective: Third-person.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Emergence: Aside<br>Catgirls of Akihabara**

The three girls with the cat ears strolled excitedly down the busy streets of Akihabara. Here, among the strangest of a society looked upon as strange, they blended right in.

Yuko was half a step ahead of the other two, the informal leader of the group. She was the loud, outgoing one, which sometimes worked out and somehow didn't. It has been, of course, her idea to go on this trip. Even for them, her bright blue skirt and matching top were distinctive.

Miyako was the quiet one of the group. She was shy, awkward, beautiful, and oblivious. When Yuko had brought up the idea of going to Akihabara, she had just gone along with it. She dressed brightly, in loud pink, and didn't seem to realize the attention it grabbed.

Kiyomi was studious and logical, a counter to the wild emotions of the other two. She had objected to the trip, saying they needed to study for their all-important exams, but eventually agreed to go on the trip. Compared to the others, her light-and-dark green outfit was subdued.

"Hey, look at the girl with the bow," Yuko said, pointing. Crossing the street was a girl in black and white with a prominent black bow on her head. "She looks familiar somehow."

"You shouldn't point," Miyako objected quietly.

"An anime cosplayer, maybe?" Kiyomi suggested.

Yuko was already shouting, "Hey! Come join us!"

The girl in black looked at them, bow twitching with the abrupt moment.


	10. Practical Considerations

School has delayed the next chapter. But in the meantime, have the laziest aside ever. Believe it or not, our team is actually thinking about the future. Sort of.

Canon: Full.  
>Perspective: In-universe document.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Emergence: Aside<br>Practical Considerations**

**A Feasibility Study of Keeping Team Motherfucking RWBY in Ben's Apartment**

_by Cliff, Isaac, Ben, Sam, and Jen_

**PHYSICAL LAYOUT**

_Or: Cramming Six People into an Apartment Designed for Two_

The current accommodations are barely adequate for two additional occupants, let alone four. Only one bedroom is available, and it is taken up by the original two occupants. There is a second bedroom, but it has been converted into an office and server room. Currently, the two additional occupants sleep in the living room, which also renders that space nonfunctional. ie ben cant watch tv any more

jesus christ could you get any more academic?

The apartment is designed to accommodate up to four people in its original configuration. However, as mentioned above, the second bedroom has been converted to a technical space. Although there is floor space, thermal and acoustic considerations preclude occupancy. what happened was weiss tried to sleep there and couldnt and she was bichier then usual that day

Removing the server equipment is technically, but not politically, feasible. that means ben wont agree to it

Living conditions have been described by the two new occupants as uncomfortable. weisz hates the floor but ruby is ok with teh coush Space is limited and I forgot where I was going with this.

Something something daily routine being interrupted, can write this later.

translation: ben's apartment sucks

Costs

Basically we're going to run out of money pretty fast if we don't get more income.

Monthly Expenses

Expense

Before

After

Rent

Food

^569sj!

Utilities

Internet

100

150

Equipment

Clothes and stuff

Jen's crap

Cell phones

160$

320$

i accidentally the table when I didn't save but basically we can't afford to live now

Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on this right now. They can't be that expensive. -Cliff

they eat a lot. Like, a LOT. And they need clothes and gadgets and they want to go out and experience Earth. plus the cell phone contracts are expensive

WHY DID YOU PUT THEM ON CONTRACTS? I TOLD YOU TO BUY BURN PHONES!

oh we didn't yet but I figured that would be an expense in the future

EIGHTY FUCKING DOLLARS A MONTH? IT'S NOT LIKE THEY NEED DATA!

data is really useful and i like data

BEN YOU'RE BITCHING ABOUT COSTS AND THEN YOU SAY THEY NEED DATA!

Can you please not argue on the Google Docs please? - Isaac

This might be irrelevant, see the sections below.

how to entertain them by Isaac

**RWBY house**

Like Cliff said above its not really doable to keep the entire team RWBY in Ben's apartment. I'm thinkign we can find a smallish house somewhere in bby to rent or buy.

this would be for both us and rwby so it would have to be big enough for 8 people but it's not like a fancy house so we could prbably put 4 beds in a room for example. and if would have room for servers and stuf

I actually support this idea. It would get some people off my case about where I'm living. And it might be fun, too.

yeah, that requires money, of which us (and especially you) have none

We need to get jobs to support this **Solving Monetary Concerns ****via Employment**

So, where can we get more money to do this.

Sam: I already work and it's not like i could take another job when I have school. I would really like to, you know, not quit school, too.

Isaac: i guess i could get a job or something

Cliff: I'm unemployable and I'm way too busy at BCIT, but maybe I can embezzle some more money from my parents.

Ben: I'm already working.

Jen: I already work. I could maybe drop my upgrading classes and get a job, but i mean I'ts going to be done in a few months anyway so after that i could maybe not go into college.

**DIFFERENCES**

_Or: Speculation on the differences between Remnans and Terrans_

Worst title ever - Isaac

why is this even ehre

tl;dr: We're fucked.


	11. Diversions I

In which Ruby plays some games she shouldn't and some she should. Except it was getting a little long so now it's only two games she shouldn't. Doom isn't here because I'm saving it for a separate thing.

Canon: Full, but loose characterization.  
>Context: mid-Urban Panther<br>Perspective: Third-person.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Emergence: Aside<strong>

**Diversions I**

They were bored. Without classes or missions, the first half of Team RWBY had nothing to do. Although they didn't have much with them, this world had plenty of entertainment, and with a little pushing from Sam they soon found themselves in front of Ben's gaming PC.

Weiss sat beside Ruby, who had one hand on the (large and clicky) keyboard and the other on the mouse, scrolling through the list of games.

She pointed to one at the top. "How about this one? Saints Row!"

Weiss arched an eyebrow. "Why? Do you even know what it's about?"

Ruby answered enthusiastically, "I heard that a saint is like someone who does really good deeds, so this game must be about helping people!"

"I highly doubt that."

"Well, we won't know until we play it," Ruby said with a tone of finality, launching the game.

"They can't spell," Weiss commented as soon as she saw the main menu.

"What?" The cursor paused over the New Game option.

Weiss pointed at one of the menu options. "It should be h-o-r-d-e. Unless they're implying it has something to do with prostitution, but that doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Maybe it's a joke we don't get," Ruby suggested.

Reluctantly, Weiss admitted, "It could be."

The screen faded out, and the opening crawl popped up. Against a starry background, with dramatic music in the background, one of the most ridiculous intros they had ever seen scrolled down the screen.

_Conquest._

_The story of human history._

_Since time immemorial, great leaders have risen from humble beginnings to..._

_do shit._

_And so it was with the THIRD STREET SAINTS._

_Since conquering Stilwater, the once small-time street gang has evolved into a media empire._

_A Saints movie is in development. JOHNNY GAT and SHAUNDI are pop-culture icons. And PIERCE..._

_Well, who gives a fuck about Pierce?_

_The points is, the Saints are on the world stage and every criminal organization wants their crown._

_It was only a matter of time before one of them took the fight to the Saints._

Both of the girls stared blankly. "What."

"I think that's another reference we didn't get. Maybe we were supposed to play the other games first," Weiss hypothesized. "Also, I didn't expect that much swearing."

"Me neither," Ruby agreed, already getting a bad feeling about this game. The opening made absolutely no sense to her. The Saints were some kind of gang, but they were pop-culture icons, so were they a fictional gang in the game?

The next part was an inexplicable advertisement for an energy drink which showed a man getting violently beaten before drinking it and starting to beat down his attackers.

"I don't get it," Ruby commented, watching the man fight. "Does the drink enhance Aura or something?"

"There's no Aura here," Weiss reminded her. "I think it's implied that the energy drink gives you powers."

"Oh..." Ruby replied. "Can they really do that?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Aww."

The advertisement ended, switching to three sharply dressed but drab coloured people talking in an elevator.

"They're going to rob the bank!" Ruby exclaimed when the subject was first brought up.

Weiss rolled her eyes as another man, wearing an exaggerated mask and oversized sweater with bright purple accents, stepped into the scene. "With an actor. Dressed as themselves. It's like they're not even taking it seriously."

Ruby laughed when the actor went overboard and asked to redo his line, but Weiss just rolled her eyes. "I don't get it, is this a real bank robbery?"

Then one of the hostages asked for and got a picture with the man in the oversized sweater, who was apparently the boss.

"The boss of what?" Ruby asked. "Is this supposed to be a scene from inside the movie?"

"I don't know," Weiss said honestly.

Then the bank tellers pulled out guns and started shooting.

"Weiss, what do I do?" Ruby asked as the cutscene suddenly gave way to gameplay. Her fingers quickly found the suggested WASD keys. "Never mind, I've got it."

She tried shooting the other bank robbers to no effect.

Weiss sighed. "Shoot the guards."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you're robbing the bank."

"But I don't want to rob the bank."

"This game is about robbing a bank. Maybe there's a reason for it."

"Fine." Ruby pouted, but started shooting at the guards.

She fought her way upstairs clumsily, following the on-screen prompts. Weiss commented, "You're really bad at this."

"I haven't played Earth games much!" Ruby countered. Before she could plant the explosive she was supposed to plant, her in-game character died.

"Should we try again?" Ruby asked quietly, hovering on the continue screen.

"I wouldn't bother."

"What did we just play?" Ruby whined as she closed the game. "That was _horrible_! That wasn't about good guys at all!"

Weiss was more neutral. "It wasn't what I expected either, but it wasn't that bad. I think it's a parody of something that we just didn't understand."

"Yeah, um..." Ruby was at a loss for words. "Let's just play something else."

"How about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare?" Weiss suggested, curious. "It sounds entertaining and informative."

"Of course you want to play something informative," Ruby grumbled.

"It's only natural that as future huntresses, we study the warriors of this world," Weiss defended. "Plus it sounds fun."

"That's what I wanted to hear!" Ruby admitted, launching the third game in the series.

"The third game?"

"It's probably the newest and bestest," Ruby defended as the game loaded.

"That's not a real word," Weiss muttered, but Ruby couldn't hear her as she launched the game.

"All warfare is based on-" a narrator began to say before Ruby skipped the cutscene.

Weiss was annoyed. "Hey!"

"Sorry!" she apologized, clicking through the menu and starting a new game. Before Weiss could say anything, she selected Regular difficulty.

A cutscene started, showing a view of the world before zooming in on a part with a lot of explosions. Suddenly, the scene shattered, like it was being displayed on glass.

"Your world as you knew it is gone," a rough, accented voice said. A mean-looking man in an army uniform was visible on some of the shards as they flew around. "How far will you go to bring it back?"

Still shown on the shattered shards, the scene changed to the mean-looking man getting stabbed in the eye. "Shepherd created a war... but only we knew the truth."

"Is that Shepherd?" Ruby asked. On the screen, two IDs were briefly shown on the shards but she couldn't make them out.

Weiss snapped, "If it wasn't, would they show it?"

There was another shot of glass shattering, and this time the shards showed a helicopter and a different man. They same narrator said, "Nikolai, we've got to get Soap out of here."

"What kind of a name is Soap?" Weiss wondered aloud.

"Da, I know a place," a voice with a Russian accent acknowledged. The scene changed back to the globe, showing locations in Afghanistan and Northern India before it, too, shattered, and the scene faded out.

It faded in to a view, facing up toward power lines and helicopter blades, accompanied by the sounds of pained breathing and the helicopter.

"Get him inside!" Price, the narrator, shouted. Him and another man appeared on the screen, pointing and pushing what was apparently the stretcher the viewpoint character was on.

The scene changed to an echo-y, blurry, dreamlike sequence. A man was smoking a cigar, and Price's voice echoed, "What the hell kind of a name is Soap, eh?"

"It's a flashback," Weiss explained.

"I knew that!" Ruby replied, cutting off Nikolai saying that the safehouse was up ahead in the game.

"Keep moving!" Price shouted before the scene changed to another flashback. In the one, Price was on the ground sliding a pistol toward the viewpoint. It suddenly shifted to a view of the pistol being aimed at a bald man.

There was a bang and a flash and suddenly they were inside a building, with Price shouting for a doctor. Then another flashback with Price in a boat shouting for someone to back up before the boat fell and crashed into the water.

"Keep pressure on that wound!" Price shouted after the scene changed back to the building.

Another voice, Nikolai, replied frantically, "I'm trying!"

He turned to the player. "Hang in there, my friend!"

Then there was another flashback, this time of the viewpoint character throwing a knife and it landing in a military man's eye, and then reversing to go back into his hand.

The view was splattered with red this time, with Price shouting for help and a doctor coming out. The scene faded black and the doctor said something about losing him and charging.

Then, with an electrical noise, a bright green "WW3" title appeared, before the first W rotated to form "MW3" and the "Call of Duty" text faded in above it.

"Well, that was dark," Ruby muttered, looking slightly sick. "People play this for fun?"

"It's just the opening cutscene, maybe the game is different," Weiss said calmly. "And it was actually somewhat well done from a dramatic point of view."

"Yeah, I guess it was pretty impressive," Ruby admitted. "But it was dark and gross."

The next scene was a mission briefing, full of jargon that neither of them understood. Apparently they were going to be fighting the Russians in New York, trying to unjam communications or something like that.

"That was really cool!" Ruby complimented, enthralled with the energy and intensity of the cutscene. "Did you see all that?"

Weiss disagreed. "The first cutscene was a lot better."

"RPG!" A voice shouted, and then there was a loud explosion. The scene slowly faded in.

"Are we sideways inside a vehicle?" Ruby asked.

Before Weiss could respond, someone in the game called, "Frost! Frost! Get switched on, we gotta move now!"

Without any player input, Frost grabbed his rifle and pushed the door open, revealing a destroyed city street with buildings blowing up above them.

"Wow..." Ruby was totally blown away by the intense computer-generated destruction.

Weiss was rather more sanguine. "Eh."

"The jammer's 500 metres north, we'll leg it from here, let's go!" The soldier tossed Frost a magazine and he loaded his rifle before putting Ruby in control.

Unfamiliar with how to fight in a military shooter, Ruby did what she always did and charged forward. She held down the mouse button, emptying half a magazine into one of the Russians. She did an awkward spin by flicking the mouse and knifed another Russian in the back. Then she tried to charge another Russian and ran out of sprint, getting shot at from both sides.

"You are Hurt. Get to Cover." the game screamed at her before the scene went black and white and faded out.

"Dolt," Weiss muttered.

"Aww," Ruby whined. Then the checkpoint reloaded and she was back to where she was several seconds ago.

"Don't charge forward this time," Weiss snapped.

Ruby obliged, staying back and shooting at the Russians from a fair distance away. She didn't use sights and barely hit any of them.

"Right mouse button, use your sights!" Weiss scolded.

She did so and found that she was doing a much better job of killing Russians. She knifed another one in the neck. "Huh, do Earth humans really bleed that much?"

"No, actually, it's a lot worse," Weiss replied truthfully, shuddering.

"Really?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Sorry, Weiss."

"Contact front! Hostiles in the open!" one of the characters shouted as they advanced. Then a helicopter appeared. "Heads up! Bird incoming!"

"Get off the street! Go right! Go right! C'mon, Frost, let's go!" the soldier shouted. Ruby was still focused on shooting soldiers and trying to move forward.

"Helicopter!" Weiss screeched, her attention back on the game.

"I've got this!" Ruby shouted. She flicked the mouse again, aiming at the helicopter and unleashing a burst. The game tactlessly told her that her weapons would not damage the vehicle. "What? That's not fair!"

"GET OFF THE STREET!" Weiss screeched.

"Okay!" Ruby shouted back, dashing to the right following the soldier called Sandman into a building.

"So what's the game plan?" Truck asked.

"Same as before. Burn the jammer, kill the bad guys," Sandman replied.

"I like it," Grinch agreed.

"Who comes up with these names, anyway?" Weiss complained.

"Up the stairs! On me!" Sandman ordered, although they were already halfway up. "Grinch, Truck, hold here till my signal. Frost, with me."

Sandman kicked open a door, revealing a bombed-out section of building with enemies shooting at them.

Ruby immediately forgot what she had learned earlier and charged forward. She managed to shoot two Russians and stab another before getting hit in the face and dying.

"Come on!" Ruby whined, hitting Escape to pause the game.

"I don't think this game is very realistic," Weiss commented as they sat at the pause screen.

"Well, yeah!" Ruby agreed. "The fighting is all hiding and shooting!"

Earth shook her head. "No, that part is realistic, at least for Earth."

"Then what's unrealistic?"

"I've seen Earth warfare in person and in documentaries, and it doesn't look like that. In fact, this looks a lot more like Remnant than Earth," Weiss explained. She waved her hand dismissively. "Try a different game."

"I was enjoying it," Ruby whined, but quit the game anyway.


	12. Realpolitik

To clarify, Asides are not meant to be a knockoff of Weiss Reacts. Although some Asides are comedic and some are even solely comedic, the primary purpose is to explore the way the girls see and adapt to Earth and to explore the difference between Earth and Remnant. I know we all want to see them react to certain things. I'd be more willing to entertain requests if they are about an aspect of Earth's technology, culture, politics, society, etc than if they are about a specific work.

That's what I intend to do. It's not a guarantee that I will accomplish it. This chapter, for example, is pretty much useless.

Remnant's politics are simple. There are four kingdoms, each with a monarch and council, and all are fighting to survive. Earth's politics are somewhat more complex.

Canon: Full.  
>Context: post-Urban Panther<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>Realpolitik<strong>

"Fucking tories," Ruby had heard Jen muttering after she came home from work. "How did they get a majority government in the first place?"

Jen was distracted and busy, so just told them, "Canadian government stuff. Look it up."

Two hours of Googling later, they were even more perplexed. Currently, a diagram of the Canadian government was up on the monitor.

"How does this even function?" Weiss exclaimed. "There's three branches, each one is bigger than the governments Vale and Atlas combined, and everything has to be voted on..."

"Badly," Cliff explained, coming in and dropping his bag carelessly on the table beside them.

"How can you waste so much effort on getting nothing done?" Blake said.

"It's not a waste of effort, it's responsible government," he replied.

"I still don't understand why you place so much importance on this," Weiss said more diplomatically.

"Politics are a big thing on Earth," Cliff explained, shrugging. "Both internal and external."

"I don't understand," Blake interrupted. "How does anything get done? How do your governments even make effective decisions?"

He shrugged. "Honestly? We screw up a lot. But when push comes to shove, we can really haul ass. It may be in a roundabout manner, but our system works."

He paused. "Other systems, on the other hand, well, not so much."

"Other systems? What other systems?"

"What we have is a form of parliamentary democracy," Cliff explained, cracking open a can of Pepsi. "The United States has a different republic kind of democracy, and then there are dubious democracies like Russia where the parliament just rubber-stamps what the President says, and then there are actual dictatorships, though they usually at least pretend those are elected now."

Blake was nearly speechless. "But... how?"

"There's something like two hundred countries, totalling seven billion people. Do you think they're going to agree on anything?"

Ruby summed up their feelings. "Earth is weird. On Remnant, everyone just has a monarch and ruling council."

"Yeah, on Earth we'd call that a dictatorship," Cliff countered. "Remnant is weird."


	13. Who Is The Bride?

Well, we know, but they don't.

Canon: Full, but unreliable narrator.  
>Context: early Stolen Flame<br>Perspective: In-universe article

_**Emergence: Aside**_

**Who is The Bride?**

Three days ago, a video was uploaded to the web, showing a young woman in yellow refusing to cooperate with Islamic State, then rising up and killing her captors. Since then, hype, speculation, and more videos supposedly showing The Bride have flooded the internet.

**What We Know**

First appeared on Sunday (October 12) around Raqqa

Refused to cooperate in an IS propaganda video and killed her captors

Alleged video was found outside Raqqa and posted by Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently

Dubbed "The Bride" by the BBC after the character from Kill Bill

Video went viral within hours, and "The Bride" became most common name

Dismissed as a hoax by US and UK intelligence agencies

Stated to be full of hollywood stunts by analysts

More videos allegedly showing The Bride in action have appeared, but none are clear

**Is this the Angel of Kobane?**

Around the time the video went up, another story went viral. The Angel of Kobane, also known as Rehanna. Immediately, some have speculated that they are one and the same.

However, most experts dismiss this as unlikely. The Angel of Kobane is specifically described as Kurdish and from Kobane. The Bride appears Caucasian and briefly speaks with an American or Canadian accent. While the story of The Angel of Kobane has been circulating and recently became viral, this is the first anyone has seen The Bride.

On the other hand, the stories have eerie similarities. Symbolically, they stand for the same thing. Defiance against Islamic State. Both are women who have stood up against the Islamic State and won. Since The Angel of Kobane has never been explicitly named and the only known picture is most likely of another person entirely, she could indeed be The Bride.

But there's another thing they have in common. Most likely, neither one exists.

**Not just improbable, but "Impossible"**

While the video has been well received on the internet, experts are more sanguine. In fact, most of them have dismissed the video as a fake. We contacted John Adams, a retired Navy Seal and veteran of the Iraq War, to tell us why.

"This isn't what real fighting looks like," he told us after examining the video. "This is pure Hollywood... It's not how an expert fighter would attack seven armed opponents."

When asked what he would have done, Adams laughed. "What they said. ISIS may be [brutal], but they're not stupid. You can't fight seven guys covering each other like that. The best option is a human shield, but that won't work when they're all willing to die."

The official position of the US government is that the video is a forgery. CIA spokeswoman Julia Grouse stated that, "It is not just improbably for a solitary unarmed woman to violently escape as seen in [the video]... it's impossible."

Though the CIA refused to explain the logic of their analysts, Adams had a pretty good idea.

"First off, she's wearing ballistic fists," Adams explained. A ballistic fist is a gauntlet with a firearm in it, meant to augment a punch with a bullet or shotgun shell. They are often seen in movies and video games. "In real life, nobody uses them. The recoil of that is going to be like hitting a brick wall. It's not a practical weapon."

Adams also took issue with The Bride's fighting style. "It's not something you use against people with guns. You'd get shot. In fact, she should have been hit." He pointed out several points in the video in which the IS fighters shoot directly at The Bride with no effect. "You can't miss at that range."

When we asked if it could be body armor, Adams shook his head, "Not with that outfit."

"She simply moves too fast and hits too hard. If this was done by someone doing special effects- and it almost certainly was- then they went a little overboard making their protagonist the powerful one."

**Ripped from Fiction?**

Several internet communities have theorized that not only is The Bride fake, she's also not even original.

As mentioned before, the fight itself is reminiscent of a Quentin Tarantino film, which themselves are inspired by earlier action movies from Asia. A focus on close combat, lots of blood, and one protagonist beating several unskilled fighters. All that's missing is the cinematography, which is more like a mockumentary.

There are several parts of the video that seem to be not-so-subtle nods to popular culture. The Bride's hair briefly appears to catch fire, like Dragonball Z's Super Saiyan. The ballistic fist works similarly to the one in the video game Fallout. The camera being knocked over and ending the video is a hallmark of the horror genre.

The internet, in a typical frenzy, has come up with the idea that The Bride is a direct copy of an existing character. Most of these are anime characters, like Miu Furinji and Leone, but a hero from the MMO League of Legends is also a common guess.

Movie critic Erick Reyes dismisses the wilder speculation. He says that while there are elements of other works in it, it's not fair to call the video a knockoff.

**Joke, Hoax, or Propaganda?**

The general consensus is that the video is fake, but its exact nature is still a matter of debate. Who made it and why.

When pressed, Grouse stated that the CIA had "no official position on the matter."

Reyes believes that the video was an attempt to cash in on the attention given to IS. "It's tasteless, but potentially could bring in a lot of publicity, and I suspect we'll see an announcement from someone shortly."

But who made it? Reyes opined, "I don't think it would be a major studio, probably an independent firm."

Adams has a different opinion. "This is psychological warfare. This is ISIS propaganda. This is not a film school project."

He explained that the video fits the Islamic State's admittedly erratic pattern perfectly. "It's got high production values, it's professional, it looks good, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. There's a lot of wow factor and it's sickening but it doesn't have any other sort of impact. It doesn't seem like it should exist but it makes sense to ISIS."

A CIA analyst, who wishes to remain anonymous, disagrees. He stated that this does not fit the IS pattern as they see it. IS presents a strong, united front, urging others to join on their glorious jihad. This video goes against it, showing defiance against an unstoppable force and showing a symbol of the West triumphing over the Islamic State.

Whoever she may or may not be, The Bride has captured our imagination, a symbol of defiance against the extremist Islamic State, even if she is only fiction. The question of where the video came from and why is still open.


	14. The Briefing

These were actually written concurrently with the chapters in question, although I'll admit that they're pretty rough.

Virtual cookie to whoever correctly guesses who the two characters in this chapter are based on. I ended up going back on it later, though

Canon: Full.  
>Context: Concurrent with Chapter 4-1<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>The Briefing<strong>

The White House

A CIA man and a naval officer walk into the White House sounded like the beginning of a bad joke. The naval officer remarked this to his counterpart, who reminded him that what they were about to tell the President sounded like a worse joke.

"Sit down, gentlemen," the President said cordially. "What do you have for me today?"

"Are you familiar with The Bride, sir?" the CIA man began.

"The one in Syria?"

"Yes, sir."

The President nodded. "I am. Have you figured out who made the video?"

The two intelligence officers shared a look. "It is our belief that the video was not faked, sir."

His voice was grim. "Explain."

"We have drone imagery of the event," The man from the CIA opened a folder and placed several greyscale pictures on the President's desk. He pointed out several features. "This is infrared imagery. The brighter thermal bloom we believe is The Bride."

He pushed that picture aside and arranged several more. These all showed, in greyscale detail, blood splatters from the men as they were hit by the woman in yellow (or, in this case, light grey). "Sir, these frames match up exactly to the ones in the video. She is the only one in the area. It is not staged, and it could not have been anyone else."

"So who is she?"

"The NSA ran voiceprint recognition," the CIA man explained, deliberately using the common term rather than the technical one. "They've matched her voice with a 90% probability to that of a US national. We know that she's still within the continental United States. It cannot be her."

"So your voiceprint doesn't work?" the President asked.

"The NSA's, sir, and not exactly," he replied, letting a little institutional rivalry leak through. He collected the drone pictures and put another three on the table.

"I think your manga collection got mixed up with your intel report," the President said lightly, holding up one of the pictures.

The CIA man shook his head. "No, sir. That is Yang Xiao Long, the most probable identity of The Bride. And a fictional character voiced by the American in question."

"You're joking."

"We've actually been tracking her teammates- from the show, that is-, or people we thought were her teammates," he explained quickly. "Over the past month and a half, we have observed all three of them at various locations around the world."

"Her actual teammates?" the President asked. "Not just people dressed up in costumes?"

"We've spotted some of them who did not appear to have any other identities, and the NSA intercepted some very strange communications. We even think the Russians tried to grab one of them, but failed. Unfortunately we haven't been able to confirm any of it as authentic until now."

"Are you telling me there's an anime character running around in Raqqa beating up ISIS? And that the rest of her team has been escaping into our reality over the past two months? Gentlemen, I don't mean to doubt your competence, but I fell as if this is some kind of joke that is going over my head."

"Mister President, in a situation like this it is critical that we focus on what we do know, not what we don't," the naval officer said, speaking up for the first time. "We know that there is a woman who killed seven ISIS fighters at close range. We strongly suspect she is still there and still fighting. We strongly suspect that she is superhuman. We believe she is a fictional character that has somehow ended up in our world. We believe that she is not the only one."

"Okay. So we know there's someone superhuman running around in Raqqa." The President leaned back. "Gentlemen, I have heard some crazy things in this office, but I think this tops the charts."

The CIA man and the naval officer shared a look. The naval officer said, "Sir, I request authorization to retrieve this individual and bring her back to the United States."

"So far, we have avoided direct involvement in that conflict," the President stated. "What you are asking for constitutes direct involvement."

He stood up and paced the room. "It would be a questionable act. For all we haven't done in Syria, there's one white American girl and suddenly we invest everything to rescue her."

"No sir, it's one unexplained superhuman-"

"If your intelligence is accurate. I don't see how it can be."

"We know what has happened, we don't know how or why. Retrieving the girl could give us those answers."

"This would not be the first time we've done this, sir," the naval officer pointed out.

"James Foley died anyway, and the situation was much more favourable for us at the time."

The CIA man tried another approach. "Sir, if our information is accurate, this is a seventeen-year-old girl, far away from home in one of the worst places in the world. She's lost, she's scared, she's alone.

The President cut him off. "I have to put America, and the people of America first. With that said, you have a go. But I never authorized it."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."


	15. The Players

I'm really not happy with the CSIS arc at all. Consider them B-canon at best.

These were actually written concurrently with the chapters in question.

This chapter may have turned out a little more silly than I would have liked. I have no idea if CSIS actually has any institutional slang like that or not. I'm not really happy with my attempted reasoning, either. For these reasons, I'm declaring this (and the other CSIS) chapters semi-canon.

Canon: Partial (overridden by others, broad strokes only) [CSIS continuity]  
>Context: Concurrent with Chapter 4-1<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>The Players<strong>

CSIS British Columbia Region Office

"We got confirmation, Mike," a short, clean-shaven and well-dressed man said, rolling his chair into the other man's cubicle.

"On what, Dave?" Mike asked. He was taller than Dave, but also larger. Unlike the other man, he was sloppily dressed, and his chair creaked as he leaned back in it. They shared a look. "Not Alumina, is it?"

"Yeah, it's Alumina," Dave replied grimly, using the agreed-upon code word. "Our friends down south were observing the area. They've confirmed the video."

"We've got to get her out of there," Mike said immediately. "We've got to get her out."

"Out of fucking Syria?" Dave rarely swore, but this was one of those times.

"I've got this figured out," Mike said, pulling Dave's chair into the cubicle and grabbing a few scribbled-on sheets of paper.

"Okay, look at this. We know the Team Fanboy is going to try something. As you know, we're still not allowed to wiretap them, so we don't know what they've been saying, but we know they called a former infantry soldier a few hours ago. Now, if you were them, where would you go?"

He didn't wait for a response, instead answering his own question. "Probably fly into Turkey, try to cross the border there. But I'd need to get money from my friends at Rooster Teeth first. Then try to cross the border, travel south toward Raqqa, and die a horrible death."

"Unless we stop them," Dave argued. "Then we run a standard extraction with special forces assets-"

"No. We can't do that."

"Well, no, but speaking in hypotheticals-"

Mike shook his head. "No, it's a terrible plan. The problem is that Yellow is going to freak the fuck out when she see's a heavily armed team of commandos. We need something, or someone, to calm her down. And nothing will do the job quite as well as her teammates."

"So why don't we just send them tickets in the mail," Dave said sarcastically.

"See, now you're thinking the right way!" Mike congratulated, deliberately ignoring the sarcasm. "We do. But we don't. Rooster Teeth does, only it's really us. Then our guys meet them over in Turkey and we handle it from there, with the three colours tagging along."

"Because they won't help if we just ask?"

"No. CSIS has done fuck all PR over the last few decades. They'll probably think it's some kind of ruse to put them all in a lab or something. But if our guys- well, technically the Forces guys- meet them under the right circumstances, then they'll be a lot more accepting."

"Mike, this is way out there," Dave replied, skeptical. "This is convoluted and messy. You want to use assets that aren't even ours. This is like CIA stuff, and not real CIA either. Movie CIA."

"Come on, remember the Canadian Caper? This is nothing compared to that."

"No, there were actually good reasons for doing that," Dave protested.

"We want her here," Mike replied. "We need to get her before she dies, or someone else gets her."

"You're becoming too personally attached," Dave warned.

"I'm not personally attached. Four superhumans from another world. They had so much to offer. And after this, they might even trust us enough to talk to us."

"Mike, you don't have the authority. I don't know if anyone has the authority."

A shrug. "Yeah. That's why you're going to take it upstairs."

"Why me? It's your plan!"

There was an awkward moment which Mike interrupted. "Yeah, but the boss actually _likes_ you."

"Alright, we'll see what he thinks." Dave sighed before he grabbed the sheets of paper and rolled back to his own cubicle to turn them into something presentable.


	16. All Dressed Up

These were actually written concurrently with the chapters in question.

The next part of the CSIS arc. These ended up shorter than I had hoped, which is another reason why I'm not happy with them and I've demoted them.

Canon: Partial (overridden by others, broad strokes only) [CSIS continuity]  
>Context: Between 4-2 and 4-3<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>All Dressed Up<strong>

CSIS British Columbia Region Office

"So, Dave, how'd it go?" Mike asked, intercepting the other man outside their boss' office.

"Preliminary approval," Dave replied as they headed back to their cubicles. "We're go to start positioning assets, but we can't actually begin the operation until we get final approval."

"Great!" Mike replied. His chair groaned loudly when he dropped on top of it. "Okay, first off, we need to get JTF2 positioned at Incirlik-"

"Mike, you know we can't do that."

He tilted his head. "You're right, technically we can't. But I talked to Harold and he's setting it up as we speak."

"Ah, okay. What about the rest of Alumina?"

"We intercepted an email sent to Rooster Teeth while you were talking to the boss," Mike replied. "The care package is being packed up right now. They'll have it by the end of the day."

"Passports?"

"Being rushed from Ottawa as we speak."

"Do you think this will actually work?"

"If I didn't, would we be trying it?"


	17. With Nowhere To Go

These were actually written concurrently with the chapters in question.

I'm not really happy with the CSIS arc. I don't think it really gets anyone's reasoning or logic across well enough to not seem like an idiot ball tossed around, but YMMV.

Canon: Partial (overridden by others, broad strokes only) [CSIS continuity]  
>Context: Between 4-4 and 4-5 (during flight)<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>...With Nowhere To Go<strong>

CSIS British Columbia Region Office

Their boss stomped in, looking pissed right off. He tossed a strongly-worded letter on their desk. "Call it off."

"What? Why?" Mike asked, taking the letter and skimming through it.

"I gave you conditional approval to start positioning assets, not sending people to fucking Turkey without my knowledge. It turns out we are stepping on some serious fucking toes now. You needed to go through proper channels-"

"But if we'd gone through proper channels-"

"Then we would have realized that the Americans had first dibs and aborted the operation!"

"We were first!" Mike objected, verbally nailing his boss to the wall. "You knew that! This was our op!"

"It was a badly planned, overly ambitious operation that the higher ups really, really didn't like," their boss told them. "We're done. Call it off."

Mike shrugged. "Well, we can't do that, because they've already left for Turkey."

"Can't you recall them?"

"They're not our assets. The Forces team was supposed to meet them there-"

"But they're called off, too. Do you have a fucking phone number?"

"What do we tell them? That they were being helped by CSIS, but now the US Government is taking care of it and they shouldn't worry about it?"

"You shouldn't have deceived them in the first place," their boss snapped. Normally he was more tactful, but most likely his boss hadn't been too nice about the whole thing. "Honestly, this is like the product of someone who read too much Tom Clancy and watched Argo."

"You approved it," Dave reminded him.

"I gave you approval to start planning and pre-positioning, not to go off and start the entire fucking operation!"

"Jim, you know if we didn't move we would have missed her for sure, right?"

"And now we're gonna miss her anyway. Look, get your asses down to Washington. We need to coordinate, get this together. And if you can, get those idiots out of there."


	18. Passing In The Night

These were actually written concurrently with the chapters in question.

Very short.

Canon: Full.  
>Context: Between 4-4 and 4-5 (during flight)<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>Passing in the Night<strong>

Incirlik AFB

There was not one but two unusual sights at Incirlik today.

The first was the C-5 Galaxy, or rather what was rolled out of it. It was a Black Hawk, or at least something similar to it. Much of the hull had angled surfaces, and the rotors were different from a normal Black Hawk. The helicopter was only visible briefly before it was wheeled into a protected shelter, and about a dozen people in unmarked uniforms followed it into the hangar.

The second was the five tough-looking men wearing unmarked uniforms who refused to say where they were from. They had been on the base for a few days, keeping to themselves. Today, though, they were leaving, and dejection showed through their stone-cold faces as they stepped aboard the CC-130 transport that left shortly after C-5 had landed.

The teams had walked past each other, both with their own suspicions, and neither wanting to voice them.


	19. The Human Factor

These were actually written concurrently with the chapters in question, although this particular one was delayed and revised to make the scene better. It's kind of rough, but I think this manages to make the SEALs look a lot better and still remain similar enough to the original.

Fun fact: I have my playlist set to shuffle. The I Burn Remix started playing while I was writing toward the end of this chapter.

Canon: Full, and overrides the end of Chapter 4-6.  
>Context: Concurrent with 4-6<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>The Human Factor<strong>

October 15, 2014  
>Raqqa, Syria<span>

"Area secure, you are clear to approach the HVI," a voice buzzed in Lieutenant Commander Mason Hunt's earpiece.

"Copy that," he replied, waving his small fireteam forward. The team consisted of himself, Lieutenant George Jackson, and Petty Officers Jacob Ullman and Ricardo Hernandez. They were all members of DEVGRU, the elite and secretive SEAL team. The retrieval team was actually larger, with support elements positioned to cover them, and also they had dedicated air cover from a pair of MQ-9 Reaper drones above.

In fact, some of the recent bombing had been to cover their approach. They had landed in Raqqa in a modified UH-60 stealth helicopter earlier that day. The operation had been hastily planned and executed and Hunt wasn't happy with that. He also thought the whole situation was fucking insane, but he knew enough not to question what he had been shown. Classified surveillance footage didn't lie.

They stood up and marched out of the alley, slowly approaching the HVI. They kept their weapons down, even in the middle of Raqqa, and tried to appear as non-threatening as possible. That wasn't easy for the SEALs to do.

She was in an old Toyota Hilux, probably trying to get the thing started. Even covered in dirt, she was pretty, and somehow her bright blonde hair was spotless. Hunt mentally chided herself. This girl was no older than his daughter.

"Yang Xiao Long?" Hunt called. There was no reply. Most likely, she couldn't hear him or was too busy concentrating to notice.

"Bravo one, be advised, large hostile patrol approaching," the voice buzzed again. "Patrol has vehicles and heavy armament. Support teams and aerial assets moving to intercept. Recommend you pick up the pace, over."

"Roger that." Slowly and cautiously, Hunt stepped toward the vehicle. He waved at the girl inside, and she didn't notice. Taking a deep breath, he knocked gently on the window. It was potentially dangerous, but not that dangerous.

Or so he thought. The HVI flung the door open when she noticed him, and he went flying, slamming into the ground. He groaned in pain, feeling that something was definitely broken. "Fuck..."

As the two petty officers rushed to the aid of their CO, Lieutenant Jackson moved toward the HVI. "Are you Yang Xiao Long?" he asked, tone serious but controlled.

"Who wants to know?" the girl asked threateningly.

Jackson stopped, keeping his distance. "I'm a Navy SEAL. My name is Lieutenant George Jackson-"

The girl interrupted him. "You're a furry sea mammal?"

During the exchange, a group of ISIS fighters had moved onto the street. With most of the American overwatch occupied with the large patrol, they were free to appear from the woodwork. In fact, the fighters actually lived there, and had just received the message to attack the "people who are probably Americans".

Hunt and Jackson noticed the hostiles down the street at about the same time. Their actions were automatic, practised, and possibly the worst ones they could have taken in the situation.

Lieutenant Jackson moved to cover the HVI, grabbing her arm and trying to pull her into cover.

Lieutenant Commander Hunt raised his rifle, flipped off the safety, and fired.

The girl pulled away from Jackson, driving her fist into his face and pulverizing his skull. He died instantly. She spun around, punching in the air toward Hunt. A spray of rounds from Ember Celica blew a hole in his chest. He, too, died instantly.

Petty Officer Ricardo Hernandez was standing, with his gun ready, but his attention was divided between the hostiles at the end of the road and the aggressive, panicking HVI. He realized immediately that his first priority was the HVI. He shouted, "Miss Long! Calm down! We're on your side!"

Either the girl didn't hear him or didn't care. He raised his arm to block her punch, but it didn't do any good, the impact simply shattering his radius and ulna. Another punch to the chest broke several of his ribs, and a third to the head shattered his skull and eviscerated his brain.

Petty Officer Ullman, now covered in blood from his CO and fellow petty officer, attempted to stand up, but never made it. The girl grabbed him and slammed him against the wall of the building he was standing beside. Even though he was dead by the second impact, she drove his body into the wall three more times.

As the girl started scavenging the bodies for supplies, a Hellfire missile fired from an MQ-9 Reaper obliterated the ISIS fighters at the end of the street. Although it had taken less than thirty seconds for the operator to acquire the target and send the firing command and the missile to make the drop, it was thirty seconds too late.


	20. Critical Mission Failure

These were actually written concurrently with the chapters in question.

In this context, NSA means National Security Advisor, not National Security Agency.

Canon: Full.  
>Context: Between 4-6 and 4-7<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>Critical Mission Failure<strong>

The White House

The most powerful man in the world, his National Security Advisor, a naval officer and a CIA officer watched the events unfold in near real time. From halfway across the world, the silent greyscale infrared imagery seemed cold and detached.

"She killed them, sir," the naval officer said quietly.

"I know," the President said solemnly. "Make sure they get they get the bodies."

"Of course, sir," he replied. The real reason, in his mind, had less to do with respect and more to do with deniability.

"Sir, she just killed-"

The President shook his head. "It was an accident."

"She didn't realize they were friendly," The CIA officer agreed. "She's going through incredible stress. I'm amazed she's made it this far."

"I want her on friendly soil ASAP," the President said resolutely. "We have to try again. Make sure not to spook her."

"And risk losing more men?"

The President was reluctant, hesitant. "Yes, Admiral, and risk losing more men. We can't leave her there, and we can't just eliminate her."

"Sir, there may be a better option," the National Security Advisor mentioned.

"Oh?"

"CSIS had their own operation going," she explained.

"CSIS?" the President asked. "That's the Canadians, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why wasn't I informed?" the President asked, annoyed.

"A representative from CSIS was supposed to show up an hour ago," she told him.

"You said had?"

"They've called off the operation, but some of their assets may still be in place."

"JTF2 is good, but they've got the same problem," the Admiral disagreed. "Everyone looks the same to her anyway."

"No, sir, we believe-"

The intercom beeped. "Mister President, the Canadian intelligence officer has arrived."

"Send him in."

"Sorry, sirs, my flight was delayed," a man with an askew tie and large briefcase said, entering the room. "Oh, sorry. I'm Harry Iverson, Director of the British Columbia branch of CSIS."

"Take a seat, Mister Iverson," the President greeted in a businesslike fashion. "Are you aware of the current situation?"

"You sent a team in to retrieve Miss Xiao Long, correct?"

The Americans exchanged glances before the naval officer spoke up. "They made contact approximately five minutes ago. An Islamic State patrol appeared, surprising the team. The HVI panicked and killed them."

"I'm sorry, sir," he replied solemnly after a moment. "But if I may be honest, this is something we were afraid of."

"We had taken steps to prevent it, but accidents do happen," the naval officer admitted.

"I was told some of your assets were still in place," the President said to the Canadian. "Please explain."

"Technically, they're not our assets," the CSIS regional director said reluctantly. "It's a group of three civilians that we provided funding and supplies to. They were supposed to meet with our task force at the Turkish border before the operation was called off-"

"So they're working for you?"

He gulped. "No. They were to meet with our assets in Turkey and they would have been briefed at that point."

"Where are they now?"

He gulped. "Somewhere in Syria."

"Well, that's-"

"Mister Iverson," the President interrupted. "You said these were civilians. Who are they?"

He opened his briefcase and removed several folders, passing them out. "Two of them are Canadian nationals. The one on top is Joeseph Stevenson, a former Corporal in the Canadian Forces- Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Medically discharged after being wounded in Afghanistan."

"Who's this guy? He looks like a college student," the NSA mentioned, showing the second picture.

"That's correct. Samuel Georgeas, an engineering student at UBC. Fairly unremarkable."

She nodded, flipping to the next page. "And that's... that's fucking Ruby Rose! Uh, excuse me, sir. She's in country?"

He nodded. "Our intent was for all three of them to arrive in Turkey and meet with our team, but for unknown reasons she was the only one to make the trip."

"And you just trusted them to make the trip of their own accord?" the CIA man criticized.

"Our thinking was that they wouldn't trust us and would try to run rather than cooperate," Iverson said diplomatically. "I will admit it was probably a mistake, and a decision made without my consent."

"They have Ruby with them," the President said. "Do you think that they would be able to make contact successfully?"

"Yes, sir, I think so," Iverson said confidently.

"Okay, we need to get them to meet," the naval officer said immediately. "The HVI is already on her way out of Raqqa, and she's headed the right direction. We can cover her easily. But your guys-"

"Technically not ours."

"Your guys we need to get in touch with. We need to tell them where the HVI is headed and where to meet her, and we need to direct them to extraction. After that, we fly them back to Incirlik and get them on a transport stateside."

"Sounds like a plan," the CIA officer agreed. "You guys do have communication with them, right?"

"Probably," Iverson replied. "We gave them satphones, and we have their numbers now, but we haven't tried it yet. But, almost certainly, yes."

"Do you think this will work?" the President asked.

"Good probability and minimal risk to us," the naval officer told him.

"Okay, do it," the President ordered after a moment. He turned to Iverson. "Unless you have any objections?"

"No, neither myself nor my country has any objection," Iverson replied.

"Then get to it, gentlemen."


	21. Meanwhile

While they're here, what's going on back home? Is there a home to go back to?

RWBY is still quite difficult to write, but I tried. It may have come out a little more shipteasy than intended.

Canon: Full.  
>Context: post-Stolen Flame<br>Perspective: Third-person.

**Emergence: Aside  
>Meanwhile<strong>

As Weiss slowly woke up, she became aware of something poking her in the side. Half-asleep, she rolled over, subconciously trying to get away from the thing digging into her side. Instead, something kept poking her in the back instead.

The intermittent pressure forced her further into wakefulness, and she became aware of something hissing with the pokes. In her not-quite-awake state, she guessed that it was maybe something leaking or some kind of machinery.

"Pssst!" Ruby hissed, poking the white-haired heiress. "Weiss!"

She blinked, opening her eyes, coming face-to-face with a very wide awake Ruby.

"Hey Weiss!" the girl whispered.

"Did you really wake me up just to say hello?" Weiss snapped, though it came out as more of a mumble.

"I can't sleep," Ruby replied sadly.

"So?" Weiss snap-mumbled.

"Well, I thought we could talk about things, but if you don't want to that's okay, I'll just lie here until-"

Weiss started to sigh, but it turned into a yawn halfway through. "What's bothering you, Ruby?"

"I miss home," the crimsonette replied. Weiss said nothing, so she continued, "I miss Taiyang and I miss Zwei and-"

"You miss Yang?" Weiss asked, confused. Because of a combination of sleepiness and deliberate apathy, she'd only heard half of what Ruby said.

"Not Yang, Taiyang!" Ruby replied a little bit too loudly. "Our dad!"

The heiress winced. "Ruby..."

"Sorry!" Ruby whispered. "I know I was away for months at Beacon, but I miss Patch and everyone there now."

"That makes sense, I suppose," Weiss replied, but she was too tired to really articulate why that was.

Ruby's face brightened. "But it's gonna be okay because we're gonna find a way back and it'll be really happy when I get to see them again after all this."

"What if we can't get back?" It came out almost completely unintelligible.

"Don't be silly, of course we're gonna find a way back," the crimsonette replied cheerfully. "If we start thinking we can't, then we'll stop trying and we won't be able to. But if we keep trying we'll make it happen."

"You're really optimistic about this, aren't you?"

Ruby took it as a complement. "Thanks. What about you, Weiss?"

"Hmm?"

"What about you? What do you miss about Remnant?"

It was too early, Weiss decided, for a question like that. All she could bring up were the things that stood out most- the things she hated. "I can't think of anything."

"Why not?" Ruby asked, confused.

"Here, its..." Weiss searched for the right words, which was easier said than done in the middle of the night. "...different. I feel more free, more unburdened here than I ever did on Remnant."

Ruby looked worried. "You don't like this place more than home, do you?"

"I don't know, Ruby," she replied honestly. "Home doesn't mean the same thing to me as it does to you."

The crimsonette blinked, and she continued. "Home means having my life laid out for me. Home means having to be the poster child for the company. Home means taking my father's harsh words and pretending nothing happens. Home means having to act a certain way, _think_ a certain way. Home means regimentation and appearances, not love and happiness."

Ruby looked like she was going to cry. "I never realized your life was so sad, Weiss."

"It's not so bad. You get used to it." Even now, it sounded hollow and

"You know, after this, you could stay with us," Ruby offered awkwardly. "I mean, I know it's not fancy but-"

"That would never work and you know it," Weiss snapped, more harshly now that she was more awake. She quickly changed the topic. "I wonder how everyone is doing back at Beacon?"

"Yeah, me too," Ruby admitted. "I bet Jaune is getting a lot better at swordfighting like a knight and Nora is probably still blowing stuff up and eating pancakes and Ren is like "Nora..." and Nora is like "Okay Ren!" and Pyrrha is Jaune's best friend."

"That... didn't make any sense," Weiss replied honestly.

"I guess," Ruby replied. "But I think everybody was sad at first when we went missing but they're searching for us and maybe they've found out that we ended up here and they're trying to find a way to get us back."

"I highly doubt that." Even half-asleep, she could be cynical.

"Come on, Weiss," Ruby whined. "Don't be such a downer."

"Fine. Maybe they are." Weiss replied. She was still very sleepy, and getting tired of the conversation. "Ruby?"

"Yeah, Weiss?"

"Do you think we could continue this in the morning? It's-" Weiss checked the clock. "It's four AM."

"Okay! Night-night, Weiss!" Ruby rolled over and almost instantly fell asleep.

"Dunce," Weiss whispered, closing her eyes.

* * *

><p>"I thought I might find you up here," Yang called, shutting the door to the roof access. She strode toward the cat faunus sitting near the edge and sat down beside her.<p>

The day was overcast and the stars were faint, though the moon shone through. The lights of the city were brighter, creating a glow as they reflected off the clouds. The apartment building wasn't that tall, but neither were the buildings around it. The roof had a good view of the city, bright and bustling with life.

"Couldn't sleep?" Blake asked.

Yang nodded.

"Raqqa?"

"Not this time," she replied hesitantly.

Blake raised an eyebrow and one of her cat ears twitched. "No?"

"No," the blonde replied. "No, this time it's how we got here... why we're here."

"None of us know."

"Exactly," she replied. "Don't tell me you haven't thought about it, Blake."

The other girl leaned back. She admitted quietly, "It has been bothering me."

"See? Knew it." Yang smiled, but it was a thin, sad smile, something that struck Blake as unusual for her.

The cat faunus knew her friend hadn't came back from Raqqa the same. But none of them were the same anymore, were they? She knew how much trauma could change someone.

She sighed. "I guess I've just been putting it off as some sort of random chance. Maybe the act of some malicious deity."

"Do you believe in those superstitions?"

"I don't know if calling them superstitions is right anymore," Blake replied. "I mean, maybe it really was some god or spirit or angel or something..."

"But if it wasn't?" she asked rhetorically after a pause, tracing a circle with her finger. "I mean, none of us remember what happened just before we ended up here. But before that..."

"Torchwick?" Yang asked in disbelief. "You think Torchwick could have done it?"

"Not him personally, but we have no idea how deep that conspiracy goes," Blake replied. "I know we haven't watched it yet, and I don't know what counts as real anymore, but in the show Torchwick was implied to have some deep connections. But if we assume at least some of that is true, maybe he found a way to get rid of us by sending us here."

"I'm not really following your logic," Yang said. Seeing the disappointed look on the faunus' face, she added, "I mean, Earth with all their science and people has no idea about what brought us here. How would a bunch of criminals do it?"

"Maybe they kidnapped some genius scientist, or found an ancient artifact." Blake shrugged. "Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe I'm just being paranoid."

"That night still bothering you, huh," Yang remarked, taking a guess at what her friend was really worried about.

Blake nodded. "For all we know, Torchwick and the White Fang... they're all still out there. And we're sitting here, helpless to do anything about it."

"I'm sure someone's doing something about it," Yang said as reassuringly as she could, which she guessed was not very.

"But what if they're not?" Blake asked. "What if the White Fang are taking over Vale right now? We can't do anything about it!"

"And we shouldn't worry about it, either," Yang replied. "You've just got to trust that things are okay back... back home."

"Home," Blake sniffed. "We're never going back home."

"Hey, you never know," Yang replied, her attempt at false cheerfulness failing. "But between you and me, I don't think so either."

There was a long silence. Finally, Yang said quietly, "Well, in terms of new homes, it could be worse, right?"

"I guess," Blake replied, standing up. "At least we've got each other, right?"

"Yep," Yang said, putting an arm around Blake. "Everything's going to be just fine."

Blake could tell by her tone that it was forced and dishonest. "Really?"

"No, but it can't get any worse."


	22. The Night That Never Happened

I was re-reading the earlier chapters, and I'm kind of trying to bring some of that feeling back. I don't think this turned out very well, but... eh.

Standard disclaimer about underage drinking. I think it's reasonable, still not a good idea but something they would do, in this situation.

To clarify, RWBY has not watched either volume yet. Ruby has seen parts of Volume 1 in the first arc, but has avoided watching the rest of it. Nobody has seen anything but bits of Volume 2.

Canon: Mostly.  
>Context: Post-Stolen Flame<br>Perspective: First-person specified in chapter

**Emergence: Aside  
><span>The Night That Never Happened<span>**

_**Sam**_

"Hi, guys!" I greeted as I stepped into Ben's apartment. I dropped two bags on the table.

"Great, you're going to make a mess of the apartment," Ben grumbled.

"Oh, relax, Ben," Jen chided. "I think we all deserve a break."

"What's this?" Ruby asked excitedly, going through the bags.

"Booze, mostly," I replied, taking out a few bottles of Corona.

"You know we're underage, right?" Weiss reminded us.

"I've been to Raqqa, I think I deserve a beer," Yang snapped, yanking one of the bottles out of my grip.

I pointed at Yang before taking one too. "What she said."

"I don't drink," Cliff reminded me.

"Tonight you're fucking drinking." I tossed him a beer. I grabbed another one and tossed it to Ruby. "You too."

Ruby looked at Yang, who replied, "Your choice, Rubes."

I cracked mine open. "Look, we're all here, we're all together, we made it through hell, let's fucking celebrate."

_**Blake Belladonna**_

"I hate this movie," I said after about half an hour minutes of trying to watch it with everyone else.

"You read Ninjas of Love, but you hate Kick-Ass?" Sam objected.

"Well, yes," I replied, cringing at the idiot on the screen.

"Isn't that book smut?" Cliff asked.

"What's smut?"

"Well, you know, lots of sex-"

"No!" I replied, a little too quickly, maybe. "Why would you think that?"

"Fan theory," Cliff replied. "But really, why don't you like Kick-Ass?"

"Because everyone in it is an idiot," Weiss replied before I could say anything. I noticed her usually very pale cheeks were going a bit red from the alcohol. "Even though they have no abilities, they try to act like they do, in order to live their fantasies."

"Isn't that like, exactly what Jaune did?" Cliff pointed out.

Isaac shook his head. "No, Jaune faked his transcripts, but he actually had potential, so it's actually the opposite."

"He did what?!" Weiss screamed, outraged. I forced myself to be impassive. He may have lied his way in, but I wasn't exactly innocent either.

"So, Weiss," Sam asked, shaking his bottle at her. "No white knight?"

"White knight?" I asked. I know that phrase had connotations here that it didn't on Remnant, and some that it did.

"It's the ship name for Jaune x Weiss," he explained.

"Guys, I'm trying to watch the movie," Ruby muttered.

"What do ships have to do with this?" Weiss asked, moving away.

"Not like a ship that goes on the water ship, like a relationship ship," Cliff explained, balancing an orange on his bottle. "It means romance in fics basically."

"Why would I want to be with that idiot?" Weiss snapped. "Especially knowing that he lied his way into Beacon."

"Aw, come on, you'd be a cute couple," Yang teased. I knew she'd already had more than anyone else. I wondered if she was drinking to forget or if she always drank that much.

Weiss glared at her. "No. Just no."

_**Sam**_

"You know, we got lucky in Syria," I told Isaac over a beer. We were sitting in the corner, away from most of the chaos. "In fact, I think we got lucky through the whole thing."

"Huh?"

"Were you even listening?" I hissed.

"Not really," he replied infuriatingly.

"Look, remember how we were planning to get Weiss out of Donetsk, but someone else already did it and we met in Kiev?" I explained, asking rhetorically. "I don't remember everything, but Cliff explained how if he would have tried to get her out Donetsk, everything would have gone horribly wrong."

"I guess."

"Then there was Blake in Tokyo, who ran into those nekko-maki-"

"Nekomimi."

"Gesundheit."

He shook his head. "No, it's nekomimi. Nekko-maki would be some kind of cat sushi."

"Whatever. My point is, Tokyo was easy. Even the part that we were worried about, leaving the country, worked out fine."

"Okay?"

"I can't help but feel that we almost fucked the Syria mission," I said. I think that's what I was trying to get at. "Look, we didn't really have good plans. We bumbled our way through it. Sometimes things were lined up in our favour- okay, usually they were. Now that I think of it, the stakes were pretty low in Ukraine and really low in Japan."

"Sure."

"Then Syria comes around. We're overconfident, we don't have a plan. Joe tells us he doesn't know how to do it, tries to get us to give up. We think we can do it, even though we really can't. We don't try to get the proper help. If we had fucked up, if things hadn't gone the way they had, it would have... well, it would have been so much worse."

"You're assuming it's luck," Isaac said finally after a pause. "I mean, what if it was actually set up to be this way."

"Card stacked in our favour?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"I've thought about it," I replied. "And you're probably right. Maybe."

_**Ruby Rose**_

"Ruby, you flew back on an airplane, right?" Weiss asked suddenly as she poured two funny looking drinks.

I shrugged wobbilyly and took one of the cups. "Yeah. I like it."

She glared at me. "What? It was horrible!"

I think Weiss was drunk because she wasn't as dignified as usual and she was kind of uncoordinated and less pale. I mean I guess I'd probably had too much too because I felt funny and I guess that was what drunk felt like.

She ranted, "We were packed really tight, the food was horrible, it was noisy, and too hot, and noisy-"

I replied, "Oh. My flight wasn't like that. We had pods."

"What?" she snapped. "Why did you get to fly... to fly... the nice flight?"

"Business class?" I asked.

"Yes! I had to fly economy!"

"I had to fly economy," I imitated, laughing, doing my best impression of a haughty heiress, which probably wasn't very good.

"It's not funny," she snapped.

"Come on, Weiss, it couldn't have been that bad," I said, trying to make her feel better. "It wasn't even a day."

"Well, that's one nice thing about the so-called airliners here," she reluctantly agreed.

"Yeah." See an airliner on Remnant means an airship that carries passengers between the kingdoms. I guess the idea is the same but they're a lot slower and a lot more comfortable. "Did you like the takeoff? I liked the takeoff."

"No. I did not like the takeoff."

"You're no fun."

"I was thinking about other things at the time."

I leaned against the counter. "Like what? Tell me, Weiss, tell me!"

She sighed. "Ruby, I landed in a war."

"I went to a war!" I objected. It was really bad and I didn't want to think about it right now.

"Yes, but this is different," Weiss replied. "I met a girl, Katya-"

"Did you kiss?" I stuck out my tongue.

"No," she snapped. "No, she lost her entire family. And I know she wasn't the only one. All over some petty dispute that they're supposed to take some side on. It's... too familiar."

What she said would have made sense but at the time I didn't want to think about it. "Why are we talking about depressing stuff? Can we not talk about depressing stuff?"

She looked at her now-empty glass. "I suppose."

_**Cliff**_

"You know, I don't think that care package came from Rooster Teeth," Isaac said.

"Because it would have been really fucking expensive?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "And then there's the miracle in Syria."

"Miracle?"

"Like, you know, not dying horribly."

"Ah," I replied. "What are you getting at?"

"I'm wondering if there was some higher power involved."

"Like God, or like America?" I asked. I knew I was completely out of it and talking out my ass at this point, but I didn't really care. "Except America is pretty much God at this point, at least for the purpose of this discussion."

"What."

"Okay, suddenly a package appears on your doorstep. It's really expensive and apparently came from nowhere. And then someone's protecting you through a shitty warzone fuckholeshit country with buildings exploding conveniently in front of you and shit."

"What?"

I continued. "It could be God helping you. Or it could be our frienemenemys in the CIA sending us shit and supporting them with drone strikes because it's not like anyone's going to notice anyway. And maybe they've got a vested interesting or something. Also we could be in a videogame."

"The fuck? Are you seriously-"

I cut him off with my hand in his face. "You don't know where this is coming from, so you attribute it to a higher power beyond your ability to control or comprehend. Both our Abrahamic friend and our southern neighbours fit that criteria."

"Cliff, you're drunk," Isaac pointed out.

"Actually, I have not had a single alcoholic beverage this evening," I replied truthfully. I was, however, really tired, and I had drank about two cases worth of sugared and non-sugared pop. "You're the one who's drunk."

"Yeah, why is that?"

"Because you've had half a case of beer?"

"No, I mean, why haven't you had anything." I'd actually given away my initial beer to Yang, who drained it in seconds.

"I don't drink." Not that I had any religious objections or anything, I just thought alcohol tasted like shit.

"Have a fucking beer," Sam said, shoving a bottle into my hands suddenly.

_**Yang Xiao Long**_

"Something's bothering you," Blake remarked.

"I think there's a thing bothering everyone here," I replied, opening a can of something.

"You're still thinking about the war in Syria, aren't you."

She wasn't wrong. I pointed at her. "You're really perceptive when you're drunk."

"I'm not drunk," she replied. "You've had a lot more than me."

"It's just that it was so horrible there. What's happening, and I feel like I'm responsible somehow. And I still feel really bad about that kid like Ruby, and punching people in the face." It was weird to feel bad about punching people in the face. At least for me.

"It's not easy," Blake said, remarkably perceptively.

"That's like, really profound." I pointed at her again. "How do you know that?"

"I was a member of the White Fang."

I spat out the stuff I was drinking. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

"Yes."

"Are you telling me this now because you trust me or because you think I won't remember it tomorrow?" I asked. "Because that's about fifty-fifty."

She raised an eyebrow. "Both?"

"Well, enough about our tragic pasts," I opened another can of something. It might have been the same can. "You're a kitty!"

"I'm a cat faunus," Blake replied. Why was she slurring her words a little. "We've literally just discussed this."

I laughed. "Can I play with your ears?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I shouldn't have to answer that," she snapped.

"But they look so soft and scratchable!" I tried to jump up and grab her ears but she ducked and I landed on the floor. "Blaaaake!"

"You deserved it."

_**Weiss Schnee**_

"May I have this dance?"

"What?"

I turned and Ruby was standing there, wobbling, looking very drunk. Her cheeks were bright red and she was wobbling. I can't believe we let her get into this state.

I snatched the cup of something from her hand and tossed it into the sink on the other side of the room.

"But that was Pepsi..." Ruby whined before repeating, "May I have this dance?"

"It's not a dance, Ruby," I told her.

"Oh." She looked disappointed. "Weiss?"

I sighed. "What?"

"My head hurts and the world is spinny," she told me, worried.

"That's because you're drunk. Was this your first time?"

"Yes. How much have I had?" she asked.

"Too much," I replied. I think I was actually supposed to ask her and she was supposed to answer.

"Oh," she replied, stumbling forward. "Weiss?"

"What?"

"Goodnight." Ruby flopped over almost on top of me. I was aware enough to catch her as she fell.

Fortunately, she wasn't that heavy. I dragged her over to the couch. "Yang, your sister-"

"Oh, did Ruby pass out?" Yang asked, slurring her words badly and moving over to make space. "I don't think that's supposed to happen."

"Your little sister is passed out drunk and that's your response?" I would have been screaming if the world would stop moving for a moment.

"She's a big girl. Old enough to make her own decisions. To drink or not to drink. To join a terrorist cult or not to join a terrorist cult," she replied distantly, staring into a bottle with one eye. Suddenly, she flinched. "Ow fuck."

I sighed and flopped down on the blanket nest on the floor. "You have got to me kidding me."

_**Ben**_

I surveyed the carnage of the apartment from the relative safety of the server room. I say relative safety, because Blake was curled up sleeping beside one of the server racks.

There were bottles and cans everywhere, broken glass in the sink, spills and stains on the floor and the furniture. There were empty pizza boxes and food on the floor. There had been a few attempts to clean up but they'd mostly just made things worse. The place smelled like stale alcohol.

Cliff, wisely, had left early. Isaac was passed out on the couch. Sam was asleep under the kitchen table. Ruby was passed out on top of Weiss on the floor. I heard puking coming from the bathroom, which must have been Yang.

"So, should we-" Jen asked from beside me.

"No, fuck this, I'm going to bed."


	23. Through The Looking Glass, Part One

I'm calling this full canon, but the characterization might be a little off. This section is like Weiss Reacts' bastard cousin.

Speaking of Weiss Reacts, who's read Weiss Reacts to Emergence?

Author: XCVG (that's me)  
>Canon: Full.<br>Context: Post-Stolen Flame  
>Perspective: Third-person<p>

**_Emergence: Aside_  
>Through The Looking Glass, Part One<strong>

"Okay, team," Ruby announced. They were gathered in Ben's living room, and they were the only ones in the apartment. "We're going to do this. I know it's going to be hard, but we're stronger as a team, and if we do this together we can do it."

"What exactly are we doing again?" Blake asked.

"Reviewing RWBY!" Ruby replied.

"Are we really going to do this?" Weiss asked, folding her arms. "What are we going to gain from it, anyway?"

"Knowledge!" Ruby replied. "By watching the show that shows our lives at Beacon and the happenings around us, we can gain-"

She was interrupted by a loud beeping sound. She zipped across the small apartment into the kitchen. "Popcorn's done!"

Ruby came out of the kitchen balancing a large bowl of popcorn, a bag of chips, several chocolate bars, a package of cookies, and a case of Coke.

"What is that?" Weiss asked as the crimsonette dumped the snacks unceremoniously on the table. "Is this supposed to be serious or a fun thing?"

"Come on, Weiss, there's no reason it can't be both," Yang replied, popping open a can of Coke.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to take notes," Weiss announced, grabbing a pen and paper from the kitchen before returning to the couch and sitting down beside Ruby.

Yang flopped down onto the couch beside her, pushing Weiss into Ruby as she did so. She snapped, "What the hell?"

"Geez, calm down, it's big enough for three," Yang dismissed.

"Actually, I think it's only intended for two," Blake pointed out.

"You're no fun," Yang grumbled, taking a spot beside Blake on the floor. She reached into the bowl of popcorn and shoved a handful into her mouth. "Thiff if good!"

"Can we please just get started now," Weiss complained.

"Fine," Ruby replied. She picked up the remote and pushed the "3" button, bringing the entertainment system to life. A Windows screen briefly flashed across the display before the familiar interface of XBMC took its place. She scrolled through the menus with the remote.

"This still disturbs me," Blake muttered quietly.

"What's that, kitty cat?" Yang asked.

"Please don't call me that."

"Sorry. Why is everyone so tense right now?" Yang asked.

"We're watching an animation that describes our lives, that is also a work of fiction," Blake tried to explain. "It raises many philosophical questions."

Ruby paused in her scrolling. "Wait, guys, should we do the trailers first?"

Before anyone could protest, Yang blurted out, "Sure, why not?"

Ruby fumbled with the remote. Blake handed her the keyboard. "You're going to need this."

"Uh..."

"The button with the waves," she explained.

"Right!" Once Ruby brought up the desktop, she quickly found and launched Firefox. She typed in "RWBY RED TRAILER" in the search and opened up the first video. It started autoplaying and she fullscreened it.

"Hey, I know this song, it's Red Like Roses," Yang remarked as soon as it started to play. She grabbed a handful of chips and shoved it in her mouth.

"Is that..." Ruby asked quietly.

"Yeah, it is..." Yang replied.

"Is what?" Weiss asked.

"Summer's grave," Yang whispered.

"Beowolves?" Blake asked.

"Beowolves," Ruby confirmed.

"Ruby, you never told me you were attacked by Beowolves!" Yang chided.

"I didn't think it was important at the time," she replied meekly.

"This is inaccurate," Weiss pointed out. "I've seen you fight those. It looks nothing like that."

"Yeah," Ruby muttered glumly. She perked up. "Next one is yours!"

"Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it... irreplaceable," Blake read quietly.

"I remember this," Weiss said. "That was... I do not sound like that!"

"I didn't know you could sing, Weiss!" Ruby said excitedly. "Why don't you ever sing anymore?"

"I... I was forced into it," she replied.

"But do you like singing?"

"Sometimes," she replied quietly.

"It wasn't that fast," Weiss replied quietly.

"Ouch!" Yang exclaimed. "So that's how you got that scar?"

"Wait, shouldn't your Aura have protected you from that?" Ruby asked.

"I wasn't expecting it. And it hit me a lot harder than that."

"What is that, anyway?" she asked, pointing at the knight.

"It was a one-off showpiece, designed to be impressive and impressively lethal," Weiss explained, still cringing at the memory.

"These lyrics are sad," Ruby muttered before suddenly wrapping her arms around Weiss.

"What are you doing?"

"You looked sad. I'm giving you a hug!"

"I don't want a hug, you dolt!" she retorted, nevertheless hugging Ruby back.

Silently, Blake grabbed the keyboard and brought up the next trailer.

"Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation," Weiss read, managing to free herself from Ruby's grip. "Poignant."

"Adam," Blake muttered.

"Who?" Yang asked.

"Adam Taurus," she explained. "My partner and mentor in the White Fang. I trusted him once, and he turned out to be a monster."

"Hey!" Weiss shouted. "That's our train! You were the one behind that? How could you-"

"What happened to not caring about my past?" Blake retorted.

"Calm down, guys," Ruby urged. She grabbed a handful of popcorn. "We knew this could have dig up bad old memories. But we're together now and we can work it out together, okay?"

"I don't sound like that," Blake mentioned.

"No, you don't," Yang agreed.

"Wait, so Adam was the one who killed everyone on that train?" Weiss remarked.

"Yes," Blake replied sadly. "This was when I realized what we'd become. This was why I left."

"I want one of those," Yang said after seeing the big robot.

"I forgot how impressive he could fight," Blake commented. "So much potential gone to waste."

"You were the one who cut the cars apart?" Weiss asked, more softly this time.

"Yes. I just couldn't do it anymore."

"You look so sad in the video, Blake," Ruby said.

"It was a very emotional time," she replied quietly.

"All right, time for me!" Yang shouted, roughly grabbing the keyboard and skipping to the next video.

She read, ""Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one- well, I tried."

"You have a motorcycle?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, Bumblebee. My pride and joy... behind Ember Celica of course," she replied. "I miss it."

Ruby started to object, but she got cut off.

"Hey, that's Junior's club!" Yang remarked. "I think I know where this is going."

"Wait, Torchwick was there?" Weiss snapped. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"It never occurred to me," she replied. "I noticed someone there, but I didn't recognize him at the time and I barely remembered it. There's always someone meeting Junior."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Blondie?"

Ruby started laughing. "You actually did that?"

"It's one way to get an answer out of someone," she replied, uncharacteristically quiet.

"Who were you looking for?" Blake asked.

"My mom," she replied quietly.

"Yang!" Ruby whined. "I thought you gave up years ago?"

"No," she replied quietly. "No, I never did."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Wait, isn't-"

"We have different moms," Ruby explained. "Same dad but different moms."

"Oh." Weiss didn't apologize.

"Do you always flirt with guys twice your age?" Blake asked.

She smiled a thin smile. "Eh... you'll see."

"I was not expecting that."

"Yeah, show 'em who's boss!" Ruby called.

Yang slinked into a ball, edging toward Blake, muttering something.

"Yang, what's wrong?" the faunus asked.

"Yeah, I thought you liked fighting," Ruby said.

"Huh... yeah, I did," she replied quietly. "But after Raqqa, it's not the same anymore."

She paused. "Why did I start that fight? I could have got the information some other way."

"But beating up people is your thing!"

"I wish it wasn't!" she yelled.

"Yang," Blake said seriously. "It's not about what you know. It's about how you use it."

"Yeah," she replied quietly. "Thanks."

"You are pretty good, though," Ruby muttered. "And it's not the same here and there."

"See?" she called a few seconds later. "If you did that on Earth-"

"She wouldn't have a face," Yang snapped. "Most of her head would be somewhere on the wall behind her."

"I'm trying to help," Ruby said, downcast.

"I know. I'm sorry, Ruby."

"You blew up the club?" Weiss asked.

"I might have gone a little overboard," she replied.

"You know, you never did tell me what that long story was," Ruby mentioned.

"Eh, there really wasn't one."

"So, are we going to watch the actual show now?" Weiss asked.

"Not yet," Ruby answered, shaking the empty bowl. "More popcorn first!"

"Your sister is so immature," Weiss remarked.

"Better to enjoy it while you still can, Weiss," Yang replied darkly. "It doesn't last forever."


	24. It seemed like a nice choice at the time

Delays, delays, delays, but have a fan-contributed Aside in the meantime.

Author: Escudo  
>Canon: Undefined<br>Context: Between Stolen Flame and The New World  
>Perspective: Third Person<p>

**Emergence: Aside  
>It seemed like a nice choice at the time<strong>

It was a Saturday afternoon, and Team RWBY found themselves alone in their residence. Both Ben and Jen had to go out to do something important, and the other guys were busy catching up in their studies. So the girls were trying to pass the time as they could.

Ruby had suggested watching some movies on the TV, which could be useful too in showing them a bit more about Earth culture. The only problem was what to watch; Yang had the remote at the time, and she changed the channel whenever there was something either too violent or related to war, as it made her feel uncomfortable. And there was a disturbing amount of movies like that, they seemd to be nearly all from the USA.

"No." Yang said as she changed the channel. "No." She repeated and changed the channel again. "No..."

"Ugh! Seriously, Yang!" Weiss finally snapped. "Can you leave it in one channel for five minutes!"

"Well, sorry Weiss, but I don't feel like watching people killing each other any soon." Yang snapped back. She and Ruby were both on the ground while Weiss and Blake occupied the couch. "I want something to put my mind off that stuff. Is that so much to ask?"

She changed again, though this time seemed to be at the beginning of a movie. It depicted an open field, as the narrator started to speak. It showed then a kid walking his puppy around.

And then a big Golden Retriever jumped next to them. Followed by its owner. It quickly came clear that these two were the main characters.

Yang chuckled. "What a crazy dog."

"This seems nice." Ruby said. "A cute story about a dog. Wanna watch it, girls?" She asked looking at her teammates. Yang already seemed interested in it. Weiss half nodded while Blake just rolled her eyes and shrugged, so they didn't have any problem.

A montage of the man and his recent wife, and then it showed the film's title.

_"Marley and Me"_

* * *

><p>The girls watched as the story went on. How they had come to adopt their new dog, called Marley, when it was still a puppy. Marley was... problematic, to say the least.<p>

Ruby was practically squealing at the scene. "It's so cute! I love him!"

"I have to admit it, even if he causes a lot of trouble, he's quite endearing." Weiss admitted with a half smile on her face.

"And you, Blake?" Ruby turned to her teammate.

Blake, resting her chin on her hand and the elbow on the couch's arm, just shrugged. She seemed to be the least enthusiastic of the four right now. "Meh. It's the same to me."

Yang looked up to her. "I take it you aren't a dog person, right?"

"You could say that." Blake responded. And before Yang said something else, she added. "And it's not because I'm a cat faunus, alright? I had a bit of a bad experience with one when I was little, I don't hate dogs, just don't want them near me. Or my stuff." She sat upright and crossed her arms, defensively. Yang just shrugged.

"I wasn't going to say anything." She said. And the four went back to watching the movie.

* * *

><p>Eventually, they saw that not everything was perfect for the Grogans. As Jenny suffered a miscarriage, they saw how the family had all been affected. Even the usually energetic Marley, just quietly resting his head on her lap while John hugged her. Team RWBY watched the scene in complete silence, struck by the change of mood in the movie. Ruby leaned towards Yang and rested her head on her shoulder. The blonde wrapped her arm around her sister in a comforting manner<p>

The movie went on. After suffering this, the couple decided to leave for a few days, leaving another woman in charge of Marley. Things went as well as you would expect.

Ruby watched in amusement the dog's antics and laughed a bit. The others did the same, even Blake, who had been pretty indifferent until now. The mood felt brighter now.

"Hey, did we ever tell you we have a dog?" Ruby asked, looking up at Weiss and Blake.

"Really?" Weiss asked, curious.

"Yep!" Ruby said back, cheerfully. "His name is Zwei. He is, like, the cutest thing ever! I should present him to you one day."

Weiss smiled a little more. "Well, if he is half as troublesome as this Marley is, I may want to know him." She joked.

"Deal!" Ruby exclaimed. "When we get back home, I'll ask Dad to bring him over."

Yang and Blake exchanged a sad look. They both knew was the other was thinking. [I]If[/I] they ever got back home, they weren't sure if there was a way back to Remnant.

But better not worry about that for now. Better enjoy the film, as it was quite effective at making them think about nice things.

* * *

><p>Why.<p>

Why had they decided to watch this?

Seriously, who could be so cruel to make this?

The rest of the movie went on about the family's life. They had children, they were happy, and even if he was a bit old that didn't change him at all.

And everything went downhill from there.

Marley eventually had health problems. He was taken to the vet, but there was little they could do about his condition. Despite this, he still went on his usual life as if nothing had happened. But it was more and more difficult for him.

And eventually the time came. He just couldn't live like this anymore. So his owner decided to spare him his suffering and took Marley to the vet to be put down.

"Why he had to suffer this?" Ruby mutterd shakily. "He was a good dog, he didn't deserve it."

"I know, Ruby. I know." Yang hugged her tightly. The blonde was also trying to hold back tears. In fact, Weiss and even Blake were teary eyed, clearly affected too.

"Poor Marley." Weiss muttered sadly.

"At least he is not going to suffer anymore." Blake said, trying to find a brighter side.

And the moment came. John's final words to Marley. Ruby couldn't agree more. "He was a good dog. A great dog."

And a final shot of the dog's face as his eyes closed and he passed away.

Ruby buried her face on Yang's shoulder, sobbing loudly. Yang just embraced her and calmed her as best as she could, while starting to cry herself. Weiss looked away, and Blake put a hand on her mouth, both crying too.

The final minutes of the movie was the Grogans burying Marley and paying their final respects to the dog. It was nice to see that they cared for him so much.

As John walked away the last, the narrator started speaking again.

_'A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?'_

The four girls silently agreed on what he had said. As the credits rolled, Blake was surprisingly the first to break the silence.

"You know," She said, as she wiped the tears off her eyes. "I liked it. Despite ending like this, well, I think it's part of owning a pet. It will hurt when it dies, but you will remember all the fun you had together and that's what you are going to remember and treasure the most. Am I right?" Yang, Weiis and Ruby nodded in silence. They couldn't have said it better.

A moment passed and Ruby spoke weakly. She still rested her head on Yang's shoulder. "Yang?"

"Yes, Ruby?" Her sister aked gently.

"I..." She sniffed a little. "I miss Zwei."

"Me too, Ruby. Me too." Yang hugged her sister tightly, and Weiss and Blake joined in too. A minute later Yang pulled Ruby back and looked at her in the eyes. "we'll see him again. We'll see everyone again. I promise."

They hugged again. When Jen came back half an hour later, she found the girls laughing and talking happily. Even if it looked like they had been crying a little, Ruby assured her that everything was fine. They had watched a movie that helped them lift their spirits.

* * *

><p>Eh, not my best work, but I hope you like it. Next idea, a sort of sequel to XCVG's Aside story "The Night that Never Happened".<p> 


	25. The Morning After

Another fan contribution. Enjoy!

Author: Escudo  
>Canon: Undefined<br>Context: Post-Stolen Flame, set the morning after "The Night That Never Happened"  
>Perspective: Ruby Rose<p>

* * *

><p><span><strong>Emergence: Aside<strong>**  
>The Morning After<strong>

The first thing I felt when I came back to the land of consiousness, was the feeling of dozens of nails being driven straight into my brain. I couldn't remember anything from last night, just taking maybe a little too much, especially since it had been my first time. After this it would probably be my only time too.

I vowed at that moment that I would never drink alcohol again. Well, maybe a sip of champagne on parties.

Back to the situation at hand, I tried to assess the situation I was in as best as I could, right now my mind was sluggish, and I couldn't think very well. I probably was on the floor, as my extended hands confirmed, probably on the living room, where all had been gathered before. At least someone had been kind enough to lend me a large pillow to sleep on, so I wasn't very uncomfortable. Well, as much as I could be in my current state. My body felt like it was made of lead, every movement was slow and felt extremely taxing. My mouth felt as if a scorpion had made its nest in it, dry and stingy. I tried to open my eyes a bit, my first sight being the window, the curtains were drawn but not completely. The small amount of light that passed through it drilled inside my eyes and straight into my head, intensifying my headache. I closed my eyes as fast as I could, at the same time let out a small groan of pain. It must be morning already.

So basically, being unable to move normally, extremely sensitive to light, and having the mother of all migraines, my current state could be summarised as 'miserable'.

My only consolation was that the pillow I was sleeping on was one of the most comfy things I have ever slept on. It felt warm, and its soft moves, almost as if it was breathing softly, were relaxing and lulled me back into sleep. I hugged the pillow and felt it embrace me in return, and I just could listen to the heartbeat. I was giving in, just a few more hours of sleep and I would feel better...

Wait a minute.

Pillows don't give off warm (most of them).

Pillows don't move like they breathed.

Pillows don't have a heartbeat that could calm even the most loud of babies.

And pillows definitely _don't hug you back._

So...

What am I sleeping on?

I slowly opened my eyes, careful not to look at the burning light from the window, and instead looked down. The first thing I saw was a chest, a human female chest. I felt my cheeks get a Little red at the implications, and continued looking up. I saw next a slender neck, and then the face. A round face with soft factions, that bore an expression of complete calmness, its owner still asleep. Sprayed on the ground was the magnificient hair, white as snow, and the beautiful blue eyes now slowly opening.

Oh Heavens above and all the gods that rule this world.

I've been sleeping on top of Weiss.

To make things worse, she was now waking up. Her eyes slowly opened up and looked at me, unfocused. "Ruby?" She managed to say as she blinked a few times, each time a little more consious of her surroundings.

"Uhh..." I croaked as I rose up a little. Just then Weiss finally became aware of our situation, and her eyes widened.

"Ruby!" She nearly screeched. Please, turn down the volume next time. "Get off me!" She pushed me aside and I landed on the floor.

Bad move. I rolled and ended belly up, staring at the ceiling. I felt my head roll ten times faster and not stopping. And my stomach joined in the fun. I did my best to keep its contents inside of it until both calmed down. "Not so loud." I muttered.

"What were you doing, you idiot!" She said very angry, though not as loud as before. She was probably feeling as bad as me right now. Also, she was blushing heavily.

A groan came from our side. Weiss and I looked around until we noticed Isaac on the couch, an arm drapped over his eyes to shield himself from the offending light. I know your pain, brother.

"Looks like you woke up." We heard another voice, and we saw Ben coming from the kitchen carrying a battle of water in each hand. He offered them to us. "Here."

Weiss took one and took a large chug of water. "It will do good against the hangover." Ben explained as I took the other bottle. "You must be feeling thirsty right now."

Well, yes, now that I thought about it, I was feeling very thirsty. I brought the bottle to my mouth and chugged down the water as fast as I could.

Ben cringed at this. "Careful, Ruby. You shouldn't drink that much at once, and you haven't eaten yet."

I came up with that conclusion too late. As I stopped drinking to take breath, I felt my stomach churning under the excess of water it had received. I knew this time there was no appeasing the beast. Everything was coming out, wether I want it or not.

Dropping my nearly empty bottle, I rushed to the bathroom. I saw Yang passed out on the bathroom floor, covering her head with the bathroom mat. I kneeled next to the toilet, and threw up what little there was in my stomach. And quite loudly, I was left panting hard and without energy, having to hold on the toilet to stay upright. My body shivered and nearly collapsed. Yang pulled the bathroom mat over her head harder, and let out a sound between a groan and a whimper. I think she was the one that drank the most, so she was probably feeling worse than me.

The Rose Sisters, two of the best fighters to ever attend Beacon Academy, reduced to shivering wrecks, trying to ward off any harmful light with a bathroom mat, and holding onto a toilet as if their lives depended on it.

Booze.

Never. Again.


	26. Mistletoe Shenanigans

_Note: Author's notes are of the author writing the Aside, not me. Asides are open to contribution- check out the Spacebattles thread for details._

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><p>Because I thought this was too much of an oportunity to let it pass. More shiptease, people! Not that long, though, and I'm not sure if it is accurate, so I apologize in advance if it is not.<p>

Author: Escudo  
>Canon: Undefined<br>Context: During A Christmas Emerging  
>Perspective: Third Person<p>

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><p><strong>Emergence: Aside<br>Mistletoe shenanigans  
><strong>  
>After a day of shopping, and having bought all what they needed, the four girls were ready to start decorating their home once they were back.<p>

"Huh, it looks like it's going to rain." Weiss commented, looking up in the sky. The clouds were dark and quite thick. "We better hurry."

And as she had said, not soon after, it started to rain, first a few droplets only, and a moment later water fell as if the sky was a shower.

"What? Oh nonononono!" Ruby cursed under her breath, and broke into a faster pace, the others quickly following her. Luckily, there was a store nearby where they could take shelter, so they didn't get very wet.

"Great, what we needed." Yang said sarcatically, holding her bags in one hand and passing the other through her now wet hair. Both Ruby and Weiss rested against the wall.

"You think we can wait here until it stops?" Blake asked in loud voice while looking around. They were next to the side door of the store, and there was no one else around, probably busy inside with all the customers they would have at this time of the year.

"I think we should, unless you have an umbrella." Yang answered, shaking her head to try and dry off her hair as best as she could, sending drops of water in every direction and making the others cover their faces. When she stopped, her eyes fixated in something she hadn't seen before. "Hey, what's that?"

Ruby, Weiss, and Blake looked up where Yang was looking. Hanging from one of the beams, was a small string that ended in a small twig with several leaves and berries growing from it.

Blake's brow furrowed a little. "Isn't that mistletoe? I think people on Earth hanged it up in their homes for a reason."

Prior to going to the mall, Blake and Yang had done some research on the Internet about common traditions and customs in Christmas. She had forgotten about it, but it came back to her head in a second. "Oh, I remember that," The blonde added. "I think it was that two people under it would have to..."

Yang blinked as realisation hit, and she couldn't help but try not to laugh. Blake looked at her partner, and a moment of understanding later, the faunus also smirked in amusement. They both looked at Ruby and Weiss, who had been under the little plant all this time.

"What? What is it?" Weiss asked, both in annoyance and concern. What was so important about this plant?

"I think..." Ruby spoke up shyly, suddenly very interested in watching the ground. Her cheeks were turning red, why the embarrassment. "If two people were under it, I think they had to... kiss."

"..." Weiss blinked, needing a moment to process the information. "WHAT!?" She finally exclaimed. "Are you crazy!?"

"Hey! I don't make the rules here." Yang merely shrugged. "It's not my fault you walked under it without thinking."

"Oh, hell, no!" Weiss said angrily, not caring if she swore a little. "I don't care about traditions, okay? There is no way in this world or another that you're going to make me- RUBY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She nearly screeched as she felt her partner's lips on her cheek. She white-haired girl jumped back in shock, red as a tomato.

Yang had to cover her mouth to stifle her laugh, while Blake smiled and shook her head in amusement.

"Come on Weiss! It's tradition!" Ruby pleaded, using her 'puppy eye' stare. Incredibly, Weiss managed to resist it.

"It's okay. No one is seeing." Blake added.

"Yeah! Come on, don't be like that. It's Christmas." Yang said cheerily.

Weiss looked at her team again, and shrugged. "Oh, what the heck. It's Christmas anyway." She said while walking up to Ruby and kissing her in the cheek. Ruby gasped in surprise, turning as red as her cape.

"Hey, hey. Wait till we get home." Yang joked, making the girls' faces to get redder.

Weiss looked back at her blonde teammate, glaring as best as she could with the blush on her face. Suddenly, she broke into a smirk. "Well, since you are so eager to see a kiss, why don't _you_ come here?" The heiress was feeling rather daring right now.

Yang chuckled as she walke up to Weiss. "Why, you also want a taste of me-eeeeeeeeep!"

Swiftly, Weiss had jumped at Yang, wrapping her arms around her shoulders, and only stopping when their lips were only inches away, the heiress' eyes half lidded looking right at Yang's. Neither Ruby nor Blake said anything, both taken by surprise by Weiss' actions and attitude. Yang's eyes were wide as plates, her teasing expression being replaced with one of surprise and nervousness.

"Don't be like that. It's Christmas." Weiss repeated Yang's words, with a teasing tone. Yang could only stutter a response. She hadn't expected Weiss to do this.

Weiss smirked. "I win." She finally said, kissing the blonde in the cheek and letting her go. Yang blinked, trying to recover from the experience, and felt heat coming to her face.

"H-Hey." Blake interrupted. "The sun is coming out." Sure enough, it had stopped raining. The girls grabbed her bags and quickly set off.

They didn't walk for too long when Weiss broke the awkward silence.

"Let's not speak of this to anyone. Never. Okay?"

Ruby, Blake, and Yang all nodded rather quickly.


End file.
